Medivet Recognised for Helping Pet Owners with the Final Goodbye

15 July 2019

Veterinary teams at Medivet have undergone special training to help them support pet owners through the difficult process of saying goodbye to a cherished companion.

Following the successful completion of the course, Medivet teams have been awarded Platinum accredited status – the highest level available.

The training, run by pet loss specialists Compassion Understood, helped the practices to support owners at this difficult time, offering practical advice on protocols and veterinary procedures to make a pet’s end of life as smooth and compassionate as possible. They also learned about the different stages of grief and the range of emotions experienced by owners going through it.

The online course gave us some new insights into handling end-of-life discussions and patient care both compassionately and sensitively.

Head nurse Emma French of Medivet Faringdon explained: “We are pet owners ourselves so know only too well that losing your pet can be a devastating experience. We care passionately about our patients and saying goodbye to a much-loved family pet is unfortunately one of the more difficult and sad aspects of our work. We wanted to ensure that we were doing everything we could to help owners to know when they should perhaps start thinking about it and, when the time comes, to make the process as smooth and as dignified as possible.

“The online course gave us some new insights into handling end-of-life discussions and patient care both compassionately and sensitively. We have already introduced some of what we learned into practice.”

She added: “Nothing we can do will make saying goodbye easy but we hope that the additional training we have all undertaken will mean that we improve the experience we offer to our clients at this sad time and help them to process their grief.”

Head of Clinical Operations, Ciara Mc Cormack praises the practices:

“I am very proud to hear that so many of Medivet clinics have taken part in this training. It shows the sincere commitment that the fantastic vets, nurses and CCA’s have in offering gold standard care not only to our patients but also to our clients too during the most difficult time in a pet owners’ life”.