Clinical Reasoning
The Clinical Problem Solvers podcast (and website): teaching human medicine with a focus on diagnostic reasoning. Surprise, the process is the same in veterinary medicine! https://clinicalproblemsolving.com/
How we document = how we think (YouTube link): Dr Adam Rodman on the problem-based approach to medical record keeping and clinical reasoning. Not all of this applies to veterinary medicine (we don’t bill based on SOAP notes!) but the underlying themes are universal.
Dr Larry Weed’s 1971 Internal Medicine Grand Rounds: A historical view of the problem-oriented medical record and clinical decision making.
Access to Care and Spectrum of Care Resources
My Dog Is My Home: increasing access to shelter and housing for people experiencing homelessness with companion animals.
Spectrum of Care and Veterinarian Wellbeing (courtesy of AAVMC’s Spectrum of Care Initiative)
Preparing veterinarians to practice along the spectrum of care may help improve veterinarian wellbeing as well as patient care in a variety of ways. Ethical challenges rooted in conflicts between client factors and typically taught “gold-standard” care can contribute to veterinarians work-related and moral stress. Client factors that impact care options include the client’s unique goals, values, expectations, beliefs, abilities, and resources. As students transition into general practice, they may perceive that they are failing as doctors if they cannot provide the ‘gold standard’ of care they were taught. This misperception can negatively impact new graduates’ wellbeing as they navigate the realities of the general practice context.
By teaching students that there are multiple appropriate answers to a problem, and that the best course of action depends on the unique circumstances of each case, we can develop students’ resilience as they navigate the many contextual challenges associated with providing care in general practice. Being able to offer a range of care options can also help veterinarians treat more patients, which may affect the rate of economic euthanasia, and address issues surrounding access to care. Finally, improved communication between veterinarians and clients about the care involved in treatment plans, costs associated with those plans, and the role of clients in helping to make care plans successful can lead to more collaborative treatment decisions and more positive interactions.
To learn more about the connections between spectrum of care practice and veterinarian wellbeing, check out the these sources, courtesy of AAVMC.
Infectious Disease Resources
ISCAID Guidelines and consensus statements: Links, reviews, and recommendations from well-established organizations and experts in their respective fields on all things infectious disease.
Molecular Medical Microbiology 3rd ed. Updated and revised edition of this comprehensive and accessible reference on human molecular medical microbiology.
Since parasitology is hard, here is a good, free, online textbook:
- Concepts in Animal Parasitology. 2024. Scott L. Gardner and Sue Ann Gardner, eds. Zea Books, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.
Other Internal Medicine Resources
A beautiful, user-friendly guide to E-tube use from the International Cat Care Group. See especially the video on page 3!
From the human medicine world, thought-provoking presentations and hilarious shorts:
- The Role of Language in the Momentum of Critical Illness: https://youtu.be/-pGYaHguOec?si=kDq4hIqzs8AH11Ng
- Dr. Gluacomflecken, the funniest doctor on the internet: https://www.youtube.com/@DGlaucomflecken
Other Resources for Veterinarians
Want to better understand sensitivity and specificity? Or positive and negative predictive value?? Start here, with a blog post from Those Nerdy Girls author Dr. Sarah Coles.