How Well do Veterinary Hospital Staff Recognize Pain?

you're listening to an article from horse sport.com. how well do veterinary hospital staff recognize pain? by: horse sport staff |. in recent decades, many equine pain assessment tools and methods have been created. however, it is unclear how frequently these tools are utilised in equine practice despite the surge of research in this area. this is particularly noteworthy, as the use of pain assessment tools in small animal practice is increasing. understanding how equine veterinary professionals assess pain clinically is critical, as it may influence the future development of and training in pain management. it is particularly important to identify barriers encountered which prevent effective pain assessment and may negatively impact horse welfare. moreover, horses that are painful pose increased risk to staff safety. advertisement scroll to continue with content a study by researchers at the university of edinburgh in conjunction with the horse trust sought to investigate the attitudes of equine veterinary professionals towards pain assessment and the barriers to their use in the clinical setting. the results were presented at the 19th ises conference in new zealand. interviews were conducted with nine veterinary professionals working at a uk equine hospital. data was analyzed and the results showed that published pain assessment tools were infrequently used and respondents reported that they “could do better” themselves. participants consistently reported that familiarity with a horse and their behaviour was central to the successful assessment of pain; “the ones that see it day in day out, are the most important to listen to.”. participants also noted that despite the varying ability of owners to recognize pain, veterinary professionals tend to “underestimate the owner’s opinion.” pain assessment training, role responsibilities and external and internal stressors affecting equine behaviour were reported as limitations in participants’ ability and confidence to recognise pain-related behaviours. staff who had participated in pain assessment research or training reported they could recognise more subtle pain-related behaviours, one noting “since starting to look at behavioural scales, i think i’m now better than i used to be recognising subtle behavioural signs.” some participants reported using a simple 0-4 pain scale in the hospital, but stated that, although simple, this scale “is not ideal. it’s very vague” and “too broad.”. it was reported that “students feel a bit overwhelmed about composite scales” but despite this, only one participant mentioned time as a barrier to conducting pain assessments within the hospital. despite lack of use, many participants expressed a desire for the application of these “under-utilised” tools. being able to recognize horse pain is important. results of this study showed underuse of existing methods and tools which assess horse pain, and participants reporting they want to understand how to assess pain better. results demonstrate it’s important to pay attention to each horse’s behaviour and listen to what the people who take care of them have to say. understanding what contributes to the accurate assessment of pain could help provide a good life for horses and reduce the injury risk to people. ~ with files from international society for equitation science.