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James Yates
Stacy Kastner
EN 1173-01
21 April 2014
Mini-Ethnography of a Veterinary Clinic
Throughout the course of time, veterinarians have been and still are crucial
in the survival of the human race by being crucial to the survival of our animals.
However, there is not that many veterinarians in the world compared to doctors,
lawyers, musicians, or teachers. Many people would say that this veterinary
shortage is from the amount of knowledge that skilled veterinarians have to
possess. Imagine the knowledge of a human doctor and all of the anatomy,
physiology, and pathology that they have to know and practice. Take that
information and multiply it by the several thousands of animals that there are and
add in the entire knowledge of a pharmacist, and you have a veterinarian.
Literacy Review
That literacy and amount of knowledge and skill that these people have to
have is simply astounding. Research from veterinarians themselves show that there
are several different types of literacies that today’s veterinarians have to be able to
practice. Dr. David Pinson speaks to veterinary writing ability in the form of writing
lab requests and diagnostics in his article “Writing diagnostic laboratory requisition
form histories” (Pinson). In addition to Dr. Pinson, Frank O’Sullivan in his article
“Prescription writing and record keeping requirements for a veterinary
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practitioner” deals with the parts of writing as a veterinarian in writing
prescriptions and record keeping (O’Sullivan). In a veterinary clinic, communication
is also a good literacy and ability to possess. Dr. Michael Paul discusses the art of
veterinary communication with cliental in “You say tomato”, while Dr. David Lane
discusses the practical application and need of effective communication within the
clinic itself between veterinarians and technicians in his article “Writing on the wall”
(Paul, Lane). These research points to two key literacies of veterinarians, which are
writing histories, prescriptions, and lab reports, and communicating with clients. I
agree with this assumption on account of my recent observations, interviews, and
several years of past experience working with and under certain veterinarians.
However, from these experiences and observations, these authors have left out two
very important other literacies - those of the technology used and being able to read
clients and their animals. Therefore, I believe that in addition to writing in charts,
prescriptions, and diagnostic reports, and having to effectively communicate with
clients, I believe they also use advanced technologies and equipment, and read
animals and their owners.
Methods
All Animal Hospital houses some of the most talented and knowledgeable
veterinarians and veterinary technicians I have ever met. The owner and founder of
the establishment, Dr. Lynn Cox, graduated from Mississippi State University in
1983 with a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine. After owning a practice in Tupelo,
Mississippi for several years, he moved back to Southaven where he now owns All
Animal Hospital (Cox Interview). Each day, numerous cases of unique animals with
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unique symptoms walk, crawl, or fly through his doors, and he is literate and
knowledgeable enough to know how to treat each and every one of them. This is
why I chose All Animal Hospital for my observation and Dr. Cox for an interview.
There are basically six main parts of the hospital, which are the front waiting
room, the exam rooms, the hall behind the exam rooms, the surgery prep stations,
the surgery and X-ray areas, and the kennels. In the front waiting room, the
receptionists are hard at work taking phone calls, making appointments, and
checking in clients for their appointments. The three exam rooms house the
technicians and are the site of all of the basic appointments and checkups and are
also where I spent most of my observation. Behind the exam rooms is a hallway with
copious amounts of machines and equipment including computers, prescription
printers, electrolytes labs, stool sample and microscope lab, and waste containers.
This hallway backs up to a larger room with two wet tables mainly used for surgery
preparation. This room contains equipment such as a centrifuge, blood sample tests,
textbooks, lamps, and solute drips. At the back of this room there are two more
room, the surgery room and X-ray room. In the X-ray room, there are displays,
computers, and, of course, an X-ray machine. In surgery, there is equipment such as
a heart monitor, surgical supplies, tracheal tubes, a radio, surgical kits, gas
machines, and a laser.
I arrived at All Animal Hospital at 7:30 a.m. to find the veterinary technicians
hard at work making sure the clinic was ready to open at 8 o’clock sharp for the line
of clients and their animals already lined up outside of the doors. I took this
opportunity to take pictures of all of the equipment that was typically used during
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the day shifts and to copy down some chart information. Throughout the course of
the five hours on a Saturday morning, I observed over twenty different
appointments on twenty different animals. These animals had varying conditions
and reasons for visiting the clinic ranging from annual appointments, to wing clips,
to surgery checkups, to the declawing and detailing of five day old boxer puppies. All
of these I was able to observe, note, and assist with given my prior experience
working for Dr. Cox and his team. Directly after the observation, I was given the
privilege of interviewing Dr. Cox himself. Based on my interest in becoming a
veterinarian myself someday, my questions followed the lines of “How are your
college writing courses utilized in your career today,” “What kinds of skills do new
veterinarians fresh out of college need to possess,” and “What kinds of technology
do you use as a vet daily?” Even though he has been practicing medicine for over 30
years, he says it’s still a practice of the knowledge that you learn before, during, and
after vet school. After conversing and discussing the literacies of his veterinary
practice and experience, I have found that there are four basic literacies to being a
veterinary, which include reading, writing, technology, and communication.
Results
Writing
Writing in a veterinary clinic is very different than writing in a typical
workplace with memos, reports, contracts, etc. The bulk of writing done is through a
system of charts. Each time clients comes in with their animal, a chart must be either
found with their name and animal in it from a previous visit or a new one must be
made. It is through the literacy of the secretaries that this is done, and they then
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place the chart into a rack for the veterinarians and technicians to know that there is
someone waiting to be seen. Each chart is then filled out with basic information such
as the name of owner, address, phone number, and information about their animal
or animals. This information includes names, breed, color, sex, weight, temperature,
date of birth (or approximation), and what they are in the clinic for whether it be for
an annual checkup, something is not quite right, or if there is an emergency. All of
this must be written down into the charts by the technicians and veterinarians alike
in order for the clinic to run as efficiently as possible.
Other types of writing include prescription writing, medical supply order
forms, and diagnostic lab reports. When writing diagnostic reports, veterinarians
have to be conscious of several different things, such as hand writing, information to
put on the request sheet, and what information to report on the sample. When
putting information on the request sheet about the animal, there are six questions to
ask about the patient’s history. What is the primary reason for evaluation? What is
the duration and frequency of the problem? What are the objective clinical findings?
What are the differential diagnoses? What specifically was sampled? What is the
appearance of the tissue or lesion? These questions should reflect the information
placed on a diagnostic report (Pinson 408-9). Prescriptions are written for the client
and should be legible and easily understood. In addition, certain information is
required to be on all forms of prescription drugs. These include “name of remedy,
quantity, date issued, manner and site of administration, dose rate, withdrawal
period, animal description, name of client, period of validity, instructions,
precautions, risks, and name of the veterinarian” (O’Sullivan 2). All Animal Hospital
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uses computer programs and printers to make all of their prescriptions legible and
easy to read by simply typing everything and printer out labels with all of the
needed information as well. This writing is key for veterinarians to effectively
communicate to their clients what needs to be done for the animal.
Reading
Whether they are on a tight schedule or could stay in the clinic all day,
veterinarians must be able to read and accommodate whatever needs to client may
have in regards to their animal. Types of reading can range from simply reading a
magazine to reading a sample to reading animals and humans. Veterinarians should
pride themselves on their ability to read animals. Most doctors read people;
however, those people can tell you what is bothering them and what they want.
Animals on the other hand cannot speak more than to tell you what hurts and what
does not when you touch a particular spot. Also, reading tissue samples like fecal
matter and information taken such as temperature can also have an effect on what
the outcome and diagnosis of the animal will be. Reading their owners and your
clients is also not an easy task. Veterinarians need to be able to know what type of
treatment for which the owner is looking and what sort of compassion to use. This
enables the veterinarians to successfully treat their patient.
Continuing education plays a large role in the lives of veterinary
practitioners. According to Cox, when he graduated vet school the amount of
veterinary knowledge was doubling every ten years. Ten years ago, it was doubling
every 14 to 16 months. Now, once you graduate college, you are basically obsolete
already. That is why continuing education is so important. Veterinarians are
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required to take at least 30 hours worth of seminars and lectures a year to keep up
with the increasing amount of new knowledge and medical practices and drugs
coming to light. Cox takes roughly 60 hours a year because he believes that in order
to be a better veterinarian, he must always be knowledgeable about the newest
techniques and drugs available to him and his clinic (Cox Interview). All around his
clinic, All Animal Hospital, lay veterinary magazines, drug handbooks, and the latest
surgery techniques textbooks in order for him and all the people who work with
him to read and memorize. The reading and continuing education plays a key role in
making sure that the veterinarians stay up to date with the latest veterinary news,
accomplishments, developments, and new techniques in medicine.
Technology
The technology that encompasses a veterinary clinic is astounding. There are
machines in every corner of the building. Machines from EKG’s, to ultrasounds, to
washing machines, to centrifuges line the walls. Each machine is owned and
operated by the technicians and veterinarians of that clinic. Because of this, each
worker is required to know what each machine is and how to work it. Other
technologies such as several computers and microscopes sit on countertops
attached to printers and online charts of clients. Each computer is password
protected, and, again, each worker knows how to work and use the computers
efficiently. Some pieces of equipment are not mounted to walls or roll around the
building. Some are in the pockets of the veterinarian and the technicians. Equipment
like stethoscopes, otoscopes, and tracheal tubes can be found throughout the clinic
and throughout the workers. Each of these tools are used and operated by the
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workers on a daily basis. This technological literacy of the technicians and
veterinarians is therefore very diverse and covers a wide range and variety of
machines and tools.
Communication
“Communication is key and 95% of all problems” is what Dr. Cox told me
when asked about how he communicates with clients. He states,
“Communication is 95% of all problems in a veterinary clinic. No
matter how much you can read an animal, if you cannot effectively
communicate to the owner what is going on and what needs to be done, you
haven’t successfully done your job as a veterinarian. You must be able to
communicate with a rocket scientists and a redneck. It doesn’t matter what
comes through that door, you have to be able to tell it the diagnosis and
prognosis in a way they can understand” (Cox Interview).
Using terms that veterinarians understand may work for other veterinarians, but
that will not work for the majority of clients that come into a clinic looking for
answers about their pet (Paul 42).
Another significant area of communication is with the technicians and
workers that a veterinarian works with and employs. You must be able to
communicate with them through the charts and what is written down in which
handwriting and clearness is extremely important. During my observation, the
technicians spent a good ten minutes trying to decipher the doctor’s handwriting
which ended in them having to pull him aside and ask him what exactly he wrote.
This took away from time that could have been spent productively with clients.
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Another example of technician’s communication was after each client visit the
doctor would come out of one room and immediately ask which room he was
needed in next. All of the information he would need about the animal he was about
to see was already written down in the chart in order to stay on top of the workload
and pace of the clinic. As Dr. Lane puts it, “Bottom line: Write it down and post it
where other staff have to see it and go back to your other interrupted tasks” (Lane
51). This communication helped keep the pace of the clinic up and assist the clients
in the fastest possible manner.
Lastly, what seemed to be the most crucial part of veterinary literacy is being
able to communicate with the animals. By touching the animals, being calm and not
afraid, and by speaking kindly, the veterinarian can convey a sense of peace to the
animal, even if it happens to be terrified. By touching the patients, the veterinarian
can determine what kind of ailment is affecting the animal. The sense of smell is just
as important as the senses of touch and sight when it comes to diagnosing a problem
with a particular patient. These veterinarians not only use their eyes, ears, and
noses to ‘read’ the patient but almost all of their senses. The veterinarians use these
senses to see the redness of a cat’s gums. They can smell the rotting bark stuck inside
the dog’s mouth. They can feel the mass growing on the side of the rabbit. They can
hear the whine of protest when a particularly tender spot is touched. This
communication also goes both ways. The veterinarian not only communicates to the
animals that everything is going to be fine, but he must also be able to read what the
animal is communicating back. This animal communication can come from the
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animal’s eyes, mouth, voice, or the rest of their body, and the veterinarian must be
able to read and interpret whatever the animal may be trying to say.
Conclusion
The value that Dr. Cox and his team places on workplace literacy is amazingly
high in that everyone on his team has to be quite knowledgeable and skilled enough
to accomplish each and every one of the literacies that I’ve discussed to their fullest
extent. According to these other veterinarians, the literacies stop with writing,
reading the owners, and communicating with the clients and technicians. I believe
that because of my observation, interview, and experience that the list should
include reading the animals, the technologies that veterinarians use, and
communicating with the animals as well. So if you are looking for a job in a
veterinary clinic, or a career in veterinary medicine, be well aware that the literacies
held in the highest regard are writing, reading, technology, and, most importantly,
communication with clients and animals.
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Works Cited
Cox, Lynn. Personal Interview. All Animal Hospital, 12 April 2014.
Lane, David M. “The writing on the wall.” DVM: The Newsmagazine of Veterinary
Medicine. 37.9 (2006): 48-51. Print.
O’Sullivan, Frank. “Prescription Writing and Record Keeping Requirements for a
Veterinary Practitioner.” Veterinary Ireland Journal. 64.4 (2011): 221-223.
Print.
Paul, Michael. “You say tomato.” DVM: The Newsmagazine of Veterinary Medicine.
43.11 (2012): 42-43. Print.
Pinson, David M. “Writing Diagnostic Laboratory Requisition Form Histories.”
Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. 244.4 (2014): 408411. Print.