PET MEMORIAL GIVING

After losing a pet, many people take comfort in the knowledge that they provided the best life possible for their companion. Utah State University’s Pet Memorial Giving Program offers an opportunity to extend your pet’s legacy by funding research, student scholarships, and building infrastructure in the College of Veterinary Medicine. By supporting the next generation of great veterinarians, you ensure that animals in Utah and elsewhere get the medical attention they need to enjoy long and happy lives.

You also have experience in radiology and direct the radiology course and lab in conjunction with Washington State University. How did you develop your interest in the field?

Dr. Willoughby: The course has been a great continuing education experience for me. WSU provides the content and board-certified expertise while I support the students and help with labs by reading images and giving them a general practitioner perspective. It’s great to get back to basics on interpreting images, but having the radiologist’s support allows a higher level of learning.

You enjoy agility training and pet therapy with dogs, including your golden retriever Joey. Are there any similarities between teaching animals and humans? Have you had any professional insights as a result of your work with animals?

Dr. Willoughby: Joey and I volunteer at a hospital as a therapy dog team where he spends time with staff and patients. Some of the same skills we teach in class are valuable here. Asking open-ended questions, listening, acknowledging situations or feelings, and being non-judgmental are all useful skills. It’s very hard not to be empathetic to someone once you listen to their story, and the same is true in veterinary practice. Listening to and acknowledging the client’s perspective or point of view is one of the keys to relating to a client.

There are parallels when learning any new activity. The weekly agility lessons help me learn the concepts, and my coach will push me to think about how I am going to navigate a course and why something went wrong or right. The same goes for our weekly communication skills class. On day one, we ask students what kind of challenges an interaction might present. Being able to analyze what went wrong or right in a client interaction or an agility run is empowering. With coaching, students can watch their video and start picking out specific, actionable approaches to improve as well as celebrate what is going well.

You can donate on our secure website at vetmed.usu.edu/give-back, or just scan the QR code.

For more information, contact Nik Aardema, development director for the USU College of Veterinary Medicine, niklas.aardema@usu.edu, 435-797-0767.

What changes do you see coming to your role at Utah State with the transition to a four-year college?

Dr. Willoughby: I don’t want to make any assumptions, but I will be involved in designing the communication curriculum and expanding it to a four-year program where students can practice some of the difficult situations they’ll encounter in practice. When the AVMA Council on Education first required communication skills education in veterinary schools, many programs had to carve out time for teaching this class in an already packed curriculum. It’s a great opportunity to have these simulations be a part of the curriculum from the beginning. •

By: Ethan Brightbill Photos by: Bronson Teichert and courtesy of Dr. Willoughby