We Don’t Do Hot Topics

We Don’t Do Hot Topics

Easing the fear and stress of hospital patients has been a recurring theme in our blog and newsletter ever since its inception. The issue yields plenty of material, because health care and anxiety go hand in glove. While fear is a natural response in pets when they face the “white-coated menace,” their anxiety makes them difficult to handle and impairs our ability to diagnose and treat them. It even depresses their immunity against infection. Minimizing the fear of our patients is a pursuit that’s well worth our attention and a subject that’s close to my heart.
A funny thing happened, though: the topic of reducing fear and stress in veterinary patients began to crop up absolutely everywhere, appearing on the front covers of our professional journals every month for most of the current year. Behavior experts and other interested individuals from absolutely every corner of the profession are volunteering their support and advice for the de-stressing of medicine. It’s a very popular tune these days. They’ve even coined a catchy new phrase for it: “fear-free” medicine. Everywhere I look, I’m assailed with twenty-five ways to fear-free our practice. Some utilize drugs, others music and pheromones, still others frozen peanut butter. The advice doesn’t stop there, though. We’re told that this shiny new concept is attractive to pet owners. The experts urge us to advertise our fear-free goals, for pet owners desire a doctor and staff who will handle their dog or cat with gentleness during some of the more difficult and confusing experiences of his life.
Well, duh. We treat our patients with respect and kindness (and peanut butter, as needed) because it’s right and because it is the natural thing to do. It’s safer for the staff and for the patients. It gives us a more accurate view of their condition, one that’s not totally obscured by adrenaline and other stress hormones. It’s how any of us would want to be treated if we were feeling ill and were then hustled into a strange-smelling building where everyone seems to speak gibberish. “Fear-free” medicine is a high ideal and, in its literal sense, unattainable. That insignificant fact won’t hamper my pursuit of it, however. That’s why I’ve been harping on this topic for so long, since way back before the “brand name” was invented.
Right now, “fear-free” medicine is a hot topic. We just don’t do hot topics. We treat the people and patients the same way we always have, because it’s good medicine, it’s more efficient, and it’s what we owe to our patients. My advice? Don’t waste your time hunting for a vet practice that markets itself using the latest trendy ideas and popular catch phrases. Select a veterinarian you trust, someone who thinks like you do or at least is capable of doing so. Then keep that person on your speed dial. If you find yourself distracted by the latest craze, take it to that dependable vet and start up a conversation.
Dr M.S. Regan