Order Description

Patient’s details can be made up if necessary

ACMVET409A Provide Advice Case Study

It is very important you understand to what extent veterinary nurses participate in the process of providing advice to owners and have experience of doing this. If your clinic will not permit you to actually communicate with clients then you MUST be present when advice is given by a nurse to ensure you witness and hear what is said.

You are to produce three (3) detailed case studies. Each case study MUST include the following:

1.    Copies of any brochures or documents given to the owner

2.    Photos of any products discussed with owner

Please note that for privacy reasons you should cover or black-out any owner details and even the clinic details if your employer prefers. If for some reason your clinic does not wish you to use any of their documentation you will have to design some.

Please follow this template and aIDress ALL the points asked. Be sure to also discuss the General Provide Advice Considerations’ at the end of this logbook.

Choose cases that give you the best opportunity to answer a great variety of the suggestions in italics’.

Instructions:

You must complete 3 case studies.

Ensure that you select from three of four specific animal care advice situations of the following:

–    Animal health advice

–    Product advice

–    Nutritional requirements

–    Behaviour advice

animal health advice e.g.

o    animal husbandry (behaviour, common ailments, housing, local law requirements, nutrition, potential health challenges, responsible pet ownership, routine elective surgery),

o    breeding issues (artificial insemination, desexing, care of newborn and orphan animals, oestrus cycle whelping/foaling),

o    control of external and internal parasites, disease processes, fees for standard procedures, first aid advice regarding the emergency treatment of animals, optimum health parameters, poisons information, post-operative hygiene, bandage, splint and cast care, potential hazards of the use of restricted agents, pre- and post-operative information, training and socialisation, turnaround times for procedures required, vaccination schedules, including heartworm preventative systems.

product advice e.g. health maintenance and disease preventative programs, internal and external parasite control regimes, non-restricted preparations, selection and use of pet accessories, use of grooming equipment and topical applications, vaccination regimes.

nutritional requirements e.g.

o    information on: aIDitives, adverse reactions, animal maintenance, environmental interaction factors, feeding regimes, feeding levels, ingredient types, lactation and gestation, livestock forage, prescriptive requirements and drug interactions, supplements and commercial foods, surgical rehabilitation, treats, use of home-prepared rations,

o    information on prescribed diets (diets necessary with disease, vegetarian diets, obesity and weight reduction diets, life stage diets (young, active or old),

o    clinical nutritional advice: feeding regimes for (anorexia, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, gastrointestinal tract disorders, hospital feeding, intensive care, malnutrition, neoplasia, obesity, oral health, pancreatitis, senior and puppy diets, urinary system disease, urolithiasis).

behavioural advice e.g. aggression, anxiety, barking, destructive behaviour, digging holes, feather picking (birds), phobias, vocalisation, wind sucking.

?    Select a procedure that allows you to respond to all components of sections 1 to 6 on the following pages

?    Confirm that the procedure you have chosen is appropriate with an assessor

?    Describe your involvement with the animal and client

?    Include copies of relevant documentation used e.g. clinic records such as medical history, product information, feeding regimens etc. Note that you must:

o    Obtain permission from your supervisor to use copies of clinic records

o    Ensure client confidentiality e.g. remove any identifying information on the record or design your own

?    Supply sufficient information to demonstrate your ability to support an animal care advice situation involving animal health advice, product advice, nutritional requirements or behavioural advice. Your case study should contain in-depth explanations that provide the detail of what you did, how you did it, why you did it and the outcomes of your actions.

?    Examine case studies in the Veterinary Nurses Council of Australia (VNCA) Journal as an example of the standard to aim for. Your assessor will provide further information regarding the standard required.

1.    The Team

Describe your role in the advice team

e.g. what did you do, what did other people do?

2.    Patient Details

a.    Describe the patient

e.g. name, type of animal, species, breed, sex, age, weight, condition, description etc. REMEMBER TO MAINTAIN CLIENT CONFIDENTIALITY

b.    What problem did the patient have?

e.g. the presenting complaint €“ reason the patient has been presented to the clinic or the reason the client is requiring advice etc.

3.    Prepare advice

a.    Describe your involvement in evaluating the patient needs.

e.g. What are the client requirements?, what are the animal requirements?, collection of relevant data on patient and patient history, weighing, problem solving skills, active listening skills, identify normal and abnormal behaviour

b.    Describe your involvement in preparing the animal care product.

e.g. Prepare background information on the range of animal care products stocked by the clinic, numeracy skills for medication dose calculation, route of administration, reason given, WHS requirements, literacy skills

4.    Provide advice to client

a.    Describe your involvement with providing advice to the client.

e.g. how did you provide the advice? verbal, over the phone, written, did you use demonstrations to assist delivery of your message?, how did you confirm client understanding?, implement sequenced instructions, negotiating and questioning techniques, active listening, interpersonal skills to relate to people from a range of social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds and with a range of mental and physical abilities, WHS requirements

5.    Record Advice

a.    Describe your role involving recording the advice

e.g. details of advice and actions are recorded in clinic records and patient history, accurately and legibly

a.    Communication

e.g. with the veterinarians, veterinary nurses, owners, applying numeracy skills, completing documents/records, using communication technologies

b.    Teamwork

e.g. working cooperatively with people of different ages, gender, race or religion, liaise with and provide support to other team members, demonstrate leadership skills

c.    Problem-solving

e.g. identify, rectify or report potential and actual problems associated with work operations, identify hazards and suggest control measures

d.    Initiative and enterprise

e.g. assist in the implementation of continuous improvement processes, gather and analyse feedback on products, procedures and services, provide leadership

e.    Planning and organising

e.g. demonstrate time-management skills, prepare resources and ensure availability to support work operations, sequence work to maximise safety and productivity

f.    Self-management

e.g. monitor own work and work of team and identify and act on any quality issues, manage own time to meet deadlines,  implement and monitor workplace procedures, comply with clinic WHS procedures

g.    Learning

e.g. gather feedback on own work to assess effectiveness, identify own training needs and seek skill development

h.    Technology

e.g. use computer software, safely work with machines, help others to use technology, ensure readiness, operational efficiency and safety of workplace technology

General Provide Advice Considerations (answer this section AS WELL as the 3 case studies)

€¢    Under what circumstances might the process of providing advice in your clinic vary? Include both phone and face to face differences and what you could do to help if the clinic was short-staffed.

(eg. emergencies, WHS or client safety considerations €“ very important in behavioural cases)

€¢    How might aspects of the provision of advice be improved in your clinic?

€¢    How could you improve your own performance in this aspect of veterinary nursing? How could the clinic support you in this?

€¢    What support or training could you offer to others?