Exploring Social Determinants of Health in Veterinary Technology: A Workshop Approach to Enhancing Companion Animal Welfare and Student Awareness.

Incorporating social determinants of health (SDH) into veterinary education is essential for preparing students to address companion animal welfare comprehensively. This teaching tip describes a yearly workshop conducted with veterinary technology students to explore how SDH factors influence companion animal guardians, and the clinical decisions made by veterinary professionals. The workshop emphasized key communication skills and addressed student biases.

Why should we care about nonhuman animals during times of crisis?

Incentives to care for nonhuman animals derive in part from the extent to which people depend on animals for food, for livelihood, and for cultural and psychological reasons as well as from the duty to protect animals in their care. When attention is turned to solving and preventing animal welfare problems at times of crisis, it becomes clear that those problems are also associated with problems for human welfare and environmental impact. The incidence and spread of animal diseases is affected by how animals are treated, and this can have very important effects.