Euthanasia, terminal surgery, etc...QUESTIONS & IDEAS!

[Aninha]

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I know that some schools ask these questions...so I'm just curious to know what people think about these issues...How do you feel about euthanasia, terminal surgery, research animals??
And another question...If you're a vet and you see a patient which had a surgical or any procedure done incorrectly by another vet (maybe a friend who went to school with you...) what would you do?? Tell the owner? Tell some sort of authority or board?
What would you do if you saw a friend cheating??

 

[sisiut1]

Here is something interesting I found.. one of the schools I visited said they do not do terminal surgeries and that the students mainly do spays and neuters and they believe these teach the necessary surgery skills, while another school that did terminal surgeries said students benefit with a lot of experience and a variety of surgeries. So it seems that for the schools the ethical issue is determined how much educational value they believe can be derived from doing the surgeries.

 

[kate_g]

How do you feel about euthanasia, terminal surgery, research animals?? If you're a vet and you see a patient which had a surgical or any procedure done incorrectly by another vet (maybe a friend who went to school with you...) what would you do?? Tell the owner? Tell some sort of authority or board? What would you do if you saw a friend cheating??

These are word-for-word out of the "Big Book of Standard Vet School Interview Questions." If you're asked one of these questions, it's because your interviewer wants to gauge your level of maturity and professionalism, and how deeply *you* have thought about veterinary ethics, not because they want to know what the consensus opinion is on SDN... 😉

(Seems to me the whole trick is figuring out how to say "I'd report that motherf-er so fast his head would spin" without sounding like the kind of jerk nobody would ever want to claim as a colleague.)

 

[silverelf]

one of the vets that i worked with had a cat that kept having reoccuring urinary issues, nothing seemed to work, the cat kept getting sicker and sicker and finally stopped eating, etc etc. Since this kitty was only a baby (she had just been spayed a few weeks ago at another vet) my boss opted for exploratory surgery to see what was wrong with her bladder, thinking she may have some small stones or maybe an anatomical problem.

When we opened her up, we found sutures(!!!) in her bladder wall. The bladder had been nicked by the previous vet during her spay surgery! Not only had he nicked it, he had closed it improperly and it was slowly leaking urine out and infected, causing the problems we had seen clinically. This vet had never informed the owner that the bladder had been nicked, and since he had attempted to fix it, he had obviously known that he had done it.

Our vet informed the owner and she sued the previous vet and had him brought in front of the board since he had lied to her by omission, and that lie had almost resulted in the death of her cat. My boss then had to testify about what she had found. This guy was suspended from practicing for a short period and had to pay a heavy fine.

I agree with what my vet did because i think the owner has a right to know...it may not be easy to tell an owner you made a mistake but its the right thing to do. I think its also okay to "tell" on the other vet if it caused a serious problem, like it did for this kitty. In total kittie's vet bills topped 2000 dollars and the owner would have had to pay for it had my vet not informed her of the other vets mistake. Making the owner pay for your own blunder just isn't right.

 

[seaturtlegirl]

I spoke with one of the vets that I work with to see what he had to say on the topic of reporting other vets. He seems to agree with Silverelf - in terms of an interview, taking the "moral high road", as he put it, is never a bad answer. Besides, if it were one of our own pets, wouldn't we want the same type of honesty?

 

[sisiut1]

I was asked the question about another local vet making a mistake, but they generalized it to just a "mistake". I was wondering if anyone had opinions about how their answers would be the same or different if the vet had made a mistake and lied about it (like that earlier post), made a careless mistake (like my friend who had a vet leave gauze in her dog after a spay which caused a major infection), or a vet that made a more honest mistake, like not diagnsing something that is rare and/or hard to determine.

 

[Bill59]

IIf you're a vet and you see a patient which had a surgical or any procedure done incorrectly by another vet (maybe a friend who went to school with you...) what would you do??

In general, the first thing is to talk with the previous veterinarian and get the details. In many cases, unless you are there it's very difficult to second guess what someone else did regarding diagnosis and treatment. And relying only on what the clients says happened is never a good idea.

The client deserves to know any of your findings but you should be careful to present these objectively without comments on who is to blame. The most common medical mistakes are honest mistakes, which we will all make. And realize that bad outcomes and adverse effects are expected with any medical treatment and don't necessarily mean negligence or substandard care. That said, there's no excuse for fraud or lying to a client.

As for reporting, most state boards do not put much weight in complaints filed by another veterinarian. They often will only act if the client has filed a complaint.

 

[InfiniVet]

I've read up on the AVMA's position on euthaniasia, research, ethicss, etc and found some fantastic talking points and views to consider:

http://www.avma.org/issues/policy/default.asp

Its actually bookmarked in my browser and I read it to study for my interviews. Sure I form my own opinion, but I find it hard to choose the right words for my opinion so this page really helped me.

Also, all vet interview ethics questions seem to be answered by the Veterinarian's Oath (which you are required to memorize before you can graduate, btw =) )

"Being admitted to the profession of veterinary medicine, I solemnly swear to use my scientific knowledge and skills for the benefit of society through the protection of animal health, the relief of animal suffering, the conservation of livestock resources, the promotion of public health and the advancement of medical knowledge.

I will practice my profession conscientiously, with dignity and in keeping with the principles of veterinary medical ethics.

I accept as a lifelong obligation the continual improvement of my professional knowledge and competence."

As far as catching someone else cheating? I never look around while I'm taking an exam...I have zero interest in others cheating. If they are, good for them, I hope it takes them far, for that would be seriously unlikely!!

If I red handedly catch someone, I'd talk to them about it, try to help them resolve whatever issue theyre having that makes them think they have to cheat in the first place.