The Veterinary Journal 190 (2011) e1

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The Veterinary Journal

journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate / tv j l

Book Review

R.V. Morgan, Small Animal Practice Client Handouts, 1st ed.,Saunders Elsevier, London, 2010, ISBN978-1-4377-0850-9, 512pp.; £67.19 (soft)

On first receipt of this book, it seemed that a gap in veterinarypractice literature was about to be plugged. A sure-fire way ofincreasing client understanding, retention and recall of informa-tion is to supply the important information in a variety of ways.This includes the provision of client handouts, and many practicesare already developing their own printed literature for commondisease conditions and surgical procedures. Small Animal PracticeClient Handouts therefore would appear to be a valuable additionto practice bookshelves and PC desktops. It is accompanied by aCD-ROM containing the individual handouts, and also an imagelibrary that can be used to enhance the printed materials. Thisallows personalisation of each handout.

Moving on to the actual content, the first problem that Iencountered as a UK veterinary surgeon was the use of AmericanEnglish. For any UK practices that are interested in purchasing thisbook, it will require comprehensive editing of each handout tochange everything to UK English. For example, even the use ofthe word ‘leash’ gives away its US origins. Each handout containsa text box for specific instructions, thus allowing some personali-sation for individual clients. However, in some of the longer hand-outs, inclusion of a reasonable space for free text additions maytake the handout on to a second page. Some editing of the pre-printed text may alleviate this problem.

The language used is aimed at a reasonably well-educated cli-ent, as are the images, which include many radiographs of partic-ular conditions or surgical repairs. There are some commonlyperformed procedures in first opinion practice that are glossed

doi:10.1016/j.tvjl.2011.08.001

over, for example, repair of ruptured cranial cruciate ligament,patellar luxation and ear canal surgery. However, I question theinclusion of a handout on ‘Fever of Unknown Origin’ and detailedexplanations of triple pelvic osteotomy and arthrodesis, whichsuggests that the book is aimed at referral practices. Several condi-tions that are found only in the US reduce the usefulness of thisbook for UK practices, although the inclusion of all handouts inSpanish would indicate that the US market is the prime target.

The most beneficial leaflets are those on urinary tract disease –these are very clearly explained. With some conditions, there ismultiple cross-referencing. For example, a client whose Boxerhas been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy will need four leaflets.As most cardiac disease leaflets contain similar information ondrug treatments, it may have been better to have one leaflet oncardiac drugs.

In summary, this book is designed to be used as templates forhandouts (each is perforated to allow photocopying) but in prac-tice there needs to be extensive editing of each handout beforeuse, so a CD-ROM version only would perhaps have been more use-ful (and less expensive?). Hopefully the handouts will not be seenas a replacement for proper explanation for the purposes of achiev-ing informed consent, but merely as an additional method of con-veying complicated information to clients. For this intention, thebook is a reasonable starting point for practices wishing to developtheir own client information sheets.

Carol GraySchool of Veterinary Science, University of Liverpool, Leahurst Campus,

Neston, South Wirral CH64 7TE, UKE-mail address: cagray@liverpool.ac.uk