RESUMO
End-of-life (EOL) care and decisionmaking embody the critical final stage in a pet's life and are as important and meaningful as the sum of the clinical care provided for all prior life stages. EOL care should focus on maximizing patient comfort and minimizing suffering while providing a collaborative and supportive partnership with the caregiver client. Timely, empathetic, and nonjudgmental communication is the hallmark of effective client support. Veterinarians should not allow an EOL patient to succumb to a natural death without considering the option of euthanasia and ensuring that other measures to alleviate discomfort and distress are in place. Animal hospice care addresses the patient's unique emotional and social needs as well as the physical needs traditionally treated in clinical practice. An EOL treatment plan should consist of client education; evaluating the caregiver's needs and goals for the pet; and a collaborative, personalized, written treatment plan involving the clinical staff and client. Primary care practices should have a dedicated team to implement palliative and hospice care for EOL patients. How the healthcare team responds to a client's grief after the loss of a pet can be a key factor in the client's continued loyalty to the practice. Referral to professional grief-support counseling can be a helpful option in this regard.
Assuntos
Cuidados Paliativos na Terminalidade da Vida/métodos , Hospitais Veterinários , Guias de Prática Clínica como Assunto , Sociedades Científicas/organização & administração , Medicina Veterinária/organização & administração , Animais , Comportamento Animal , Bioética , Gatos , Cães , Eutanásia Animal , Vínculo Humano-Animal , Humanos , Manejo da Dor/veterinária , Cuidados Paliativos/métodos , Qualidade de Vida , Medicina Veterinária/métodosRESUMO
End-of-life care frequently requires owners and veterinarians to make decisions of monumental consequences while feeling they sorely lack essential information. This feeling can be distressing to owners and veterinarians and lead to strains in their relationship. This article illustrates an approach to end-of-life decision making that offers the greatest benefit to the animal, the owner, the veterinarian, the veterinary practice, and, ultimately, the veterinary profession. The article introduces issues and concepts that underlie all companion animal end-of-life decision making-the human-animal bond, quality of life, and veterinarians' nonmedical helping roles-and discusses major end-of-life decisions.
Assuntos
Tomada de Decisões , Cuidados Paliativos na Terminalidade da Vida/métodos , Cuidados Paliativos/métodos , Papel Profissional , Relações Profissional-Paciente , Medicina Veterinária/métodos , Animais , Luto , Eutanásia Animal , Cuidados Paliativos na Terminalidade da Vida/psicologia , Humanos , Cuidados Paliativos/psicologia , Qualidade de Vida , Médicos Veterinários/psicologiaRESUMO
Most veterinary hospice services are provided in the pet owner's home. Recognized standards of care have not yet been established in this emerging field. This article explores the legal implications surrounding the provision of veterinary hospice care in the United States; and provides veterinarians with the legal information necessary to determine whether and how to prepare for offering palliative and hospice care services. The legal issues that may arise in the context of veterinary hospice are largely duplicative of those that arise in the course of other types of small animal veterinary practice.
