NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Calling all animal lovers! A heartwarming memoir about one woman's career as a vet and the unique role pets play in our lives • “Filled with compassion and wisdom, Karen Fine is a healer whose own wounds have deepened her gifts for bringing animals and their people comfort and peace.” —Sy Montgomery, bestselling author of The Soul of an Octopus A tribute to our furry, feathery, scaley, and wet family members, All Creatures Great and Small meets Being Mortal in this compelling memoir of one woman's dream to become a veterinarian. Karen Fine always knew that she wanted to be a vet and wasn't going to let anything stop her: not her allergy to cats, and not the fact that in the '80s veterinary medicine was still a mostly male profession. Inspired by her grandfather, a compassionate doctor who paid house calls to all his (human) patients, Dr. Fine persevered, and brought her Oupa's principles into her own practice, which emphasizes the need to understand her patients’ stories to provide the best possible care. And in The Other Family Doctor, Dr. Fine shares all these touching, joyful, heartbreaking, and life-affirming tales that make up her career as a vet. There's: • The feral cat who becomes a creature out of a fable when he puts his trust in a young vet to heal his injured paw • The pot-bellied pig who grows too big to fit in the car but remains a cherished part of her family • The surprising colony of perfectly behaved ferrets • The beloved aging pet who gives her people the gift of accompanying them on one final family vacation • The dog who saves his owner's life in a most unexpected way Woven into Dr. Fine's story are, of course, also the stories of her own pets: the birds, cats, and dogs who have taught her the most valuable lessons—how caring for the animals in our lives can teach us to better care for ourselves, especially when life seems precarious.

Honest and heart-warming account of the highs and lows of life as a vet, by lovable TV star Rory Cowlam. Rory Cowlam, otherwise known as Rory the Vet, has had a passion for animals for as long as he can remember. As a young boy, growing up in the countryside, he fell in love with the creatures that could be found both at home and in the neighbouring farms and fields. There was never any doubt in his mind as to what he wanted to do when he grew up. Now Rory's dreams of becoming a vet are a reality. He works in a busy London practice where his honest and emotional relationships with the animals and their owners have made him the relatable and approachable face of veterinary work. But, as Rory describes here with a mixture of his trademark openness and humour, what he couldn't have known as a small boy with his heart set on becoming the next James Herriot, was what becoming a vet really entails. In an era when doctors and nurses are talking more openly about the realities of saving human lives, Rory shows what a vital service vets offer in caring for the animals that often form the very heart of the household. He describes the demanding experience of veterinary school, and offers a very human take on what it's like to treat animals, and the little talked about mental health implications that this pressured life or death industry holds. This is a frank and heart-warming account of chasing a childhood dream and learning to love the reality.

This is the first guide to Veterinary Narrative Medicine, a cutting-edge approach in human medicine with multiple applications in veterinary medicine. The text combines the latest research with numerous real-world examples and practical techniques to improve client communication, patient care, and veterinary well-being. Narrative Medicine maintains that a patient should be viewed as an individual rather than an example of a disease process, and that this can be accomplished by using narrative. This book explores methods and theories from leaders in the human Narrative Medicine field while addressing topics unique to veterinary medicine. Readers will gain tools to help navigate difficult conversations and situations in clinical practice, including those involving the end of life. Narrative Medicine in Veterinary Practice also addresses the important issue of veterinary wellness. The ability to view the veterinarian's own stories and those of clients and patients as narratives may help practitioners maintain both emotional and work-place boundaries as well as decrease burnout and compassion fatigue. The book describes basic techniques to promote self-reflection and mindfulness, skills often overlooked in the veterinary profession which can improve resilience and increase the enjoyment of veterinary practice. This is important reading for veterinary practitioners, students, veterinary nurses, technicians, social workers, and all veterinary clinic staff.

With family doctors increasingly overburdened, bureaucratized, and burned out, how can the field change before it's too late? Over the past few decades, as American medical practice has become increasingly specialized, the number of generalists—doctors who care for the whole person—has plummeted. On paper, family medicine sounds noble; in practice, though, the field is so demanding in scope and substance, and the health system so favorable to specialists, that it cannot be fulfilled by most doctors. In Searching for the Family Doctor, Timothy J. Hoff weaves together the early history of the family practice specialty in the United States with the personal narratives of modern-day family doctors. By formalizing this area of practice and instituting specialist-level training requirements, the originators of family practice hoped to increase respect for generalists, improve the pipeline of young medical graduates choosing primary care, and, in so doing, have a major positive impact on the way patients receive care. Drawing on in-depth interviews with fifty-five family doctors, Hoff shows us how these medical professionals have had their calling transformed not only by the indifferent acts of an unsupportive health care system but by the hand of their own medical specialty—a specialty that has chosen to pursue short- over long-term viability, conformity over uniqueness, and protectionism over collaboration. A specialty unable to innovate to keep its membership cohesive and focused on fulfilling the generalist ideal. The family doctor, Hoff explains, was conceived of as a powered-up version of the "country doctor" idea. At a time when doctor-patient relationships are evaporating in the face of highly transactional, fast-food-style medical practice, this ideal seems both nostalgic and revolutionary. However, the realities of highly bureaucratic reimbursement and quality-of-care requirements, educational debt, and ongoing consolidation of the old-fashioned independent doctor's office into corporate health systems have stacked the deck against the altruists and true believers who are drawn to the profession of family practice. As more family doctors wind up working for big health care corporations, their career paths grow more parochial, balkanizing the specialty. Their work roles and professional identities are increasingly niche-oriented. Exploring how to save primary care by giving family doctors a fighting chance to become the generalists we need in our lives, Searching for the Family Doctor is required reading for anyone interested in the troubled state of modern medicine.

Highly acclaimed in its first two editions, Ian R. McWhinney's Textbook of Family Medicine is one of the seminal texts in the field. While many family medicine texts simply cover the disorders a practitioner might see in clinical practice, McWhinney defines the principles and practices of family medicine as a separate and distinct field of practice. The initial sections cover basic principles and philosophies of family medicine and a later section discusses approaches to common diseases encountered in practice. The discussions not only address these clinical problems, but each is a workshop for incorporating what it means to be a family physician into everyday practice. The new edition is updated throughout with help from a group of reviewers and a new coauthor, Thomas Freeman, Chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Western Ontario, where McWhinney is Professor Emeritus.

In the post-Covid era, the U.S. veterinary industry is in crisis, facing a massive problem with employee retention which makes it increasingly difficult for pet caregivers to access quality healthcare for their companion animals. The veterinary professionals who remain also suffer from widespread mental health and quality of life issues. As a bastion of public health helping to ensure food safety and control the spread of infectious diseases, the veterinary profession is vital to society, and we all have a stake in its well-being, whether we are pet owners or not. This memoir examines the industry with a critical eye, using the narrator's experiences to illustrate why the pandemic is not entirely to blame for the profession's struggles, which are rooted in widespread poor management practices. This story also serves as a cautionary tale to pet caregivers so they can better navigate the animal healthcare system and avoid common pitfalls in obtaining care. Finally, it discusses potential ways to overhaul and reform the industry, such as enhancing the legal status of companion animals, creating veterinary "candy striper" programs, and supporting labor unions for veterinary professionals. Readers are invited to accompany the author on a journey which begins with idealism and traverses the depths of disillusionment before turning toward the future with a blend of trepidation and hope.