Introduction to End of Life Care

Catalog description

This course is an introduction to providing companion animal end-of-life care. Veterinary professionals need to be able to care for patients during all their healthcare stages of life. Providing a formal End of Life Care course will help prepare veterinary students for the care they will need to provide their patients during their patients’ end-of-life journey. It is based on the International Association of Animal Hospice and Palliative Care’s (IAAHPC) veterinary medical care guidelines and the IAAHPC’s Certified Hospice and Palliative Care Veterinarian (CHPV) certification program. Lectures are delivered online and include all lectures in the first module of the IAAHPC’s certification program. The lab component of this course consists of a two-hour workshop where students will interact with the course organizer, and guest speakers, and participate in a euthanasia wet lab. This course is designed to inform students about the special needs of patients and their caregivers who are dealing with end-of-life conditions or concerns and to prepare students to pursue IAAHPC CHPV certification. To receive credit for this elective a student will need to submit a reflective paper summarizing the course material and how they will utilize the course content in practice. Grading is Pass/Fail.