OPINION: Vet hum book

A little bit of self-promotion. Apologies, but really I’m just using my context to help a wider audience.

Yes, as one of the co-founders of Veterinary Humanities and a co-author on the papers on contextualised care (CC), then I am excited to share that our first Veterinary Humanities book launched in April 2026. I have no financial motives as I have only contributed one chapter, so this is an information sharing blog.

My chapter is on CC and the veterinary nurse – firstly, because CC is the first care model to dispense with IPE and other attempts at collaboration and truly include all members of the veterinary team. Existing care plans focus on inpatient care and while they have their place they are very much by nurses, for nurses.

Yet we know that care involves the whole team. The British Veterinary Receptionists Association (BVRA) uses #OneTeam and I wonder if the longer term this will be a more useful term than the current mele of one health/welfare/medicine. Because no matter how we describe it and how much we protest to provide an animal’s voice and protect the environment, we will always be human centric.

Whole team

So, what does a CC care plan do differently?

It includes the whole team by creating a space for recorded pathways of communication for front of house and lay staff to contribute their knowledge and observations.

This normalises sharing information across the team and moves us away from the oral culture that we are. So much information is known about a patient and shared orally, but the clinical notes and context notes miss this bigger picture we have.

A CC care plan shows that all contexts matter and we create a culture where contexts are shared and acknowledged with no judgement.

So many people jump to CC as a way to justify a lower bill, but finances are just one part of the context. If the animal welfare needs are met, and the client and team can manage their pets’ care, then a lower financial cost care plan is not a lower welfare care plan.

There is so much CC can bring to us all, so if you want to “read all about it” you can… [https://www.routledge.com/An-Introduction-to-Veterinary-Humanities/Skipper-Serlin-Gray/p/book/9781032427225]

And check out the Veterinary Humanities outputs [https://www.vethumanitiesuk.org/about-8] or find us on LinkedIn.