110 | The REAL difference vet nurses make to quality of life (and why we NEED to talk about it)

In episode 110 of the Medical Nursing Podcast we're sitting down and talking about something we're often afraid to mention - and that's quality of life.  Not end of life, not euthanasia, but quality of life. An often misunderstood term, and one we need to normalise. Because the truth is, quality of life is the ultimate goal every single one of us have for every single one of our patients, every day. We make a bigger difference to it than you realise, and the evidence to back that up is VERY clear. So we are going to get into the evidence today. We're going to look at what the research really says about which factors most influence quality of life in our patients with chronic conditions, whether that's diabetes, CKD, osteoarthritis, chronic enteropathy, or other long-term diseases. And we're going to explore how we, as veterinary nurses and technicians, can make a difference to this. Resources mentioned this episode: 📲 Feline Musculoskeletal Pain Index: https://painfreecats.org/the-fmpi/ 📲 Canine Brief Pain Inventory: https://www.vet.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/canine-bpi.pdf 📲 Pet Diabetes App (including QoL survey): https://www.rvc.ac.uk/clinical-connections/pioneering-pet-diabetes-app 📲 Quality of Life Assessment Tools: https://www.rcvsknowledge.org/resource/quality-of-life-assessment-tools/ 📲 Vetmetrica QoL Assessment: https://www.vetmetrica.com/Auth/Login --- Looking for medical nursing CPD? 📲 Get unlimited CPD inside the Library Club: http://vimn.thrivecart.com/libraryclub/ 📲 Snag a webinar from the on-demand library: https://www.veterinaryinternalmedicinenursing.com/veterinary-education-webinar-library  --- More free ways to learn with me: 📲 Grab the show notes and references from today's episode: http://www.veterinaryinternalmedicinenursing.com/podcast  📲 Follow me on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/vetinternalmedicinenursing  🖥️ Learn more about medical nursing: http://www.veterinaryinternalmedicinenursing.com  --- This podcast does not replace a veterinary surgeon's advice, and its content is provided only for information. A veterinary surgeon must diagnose all conditions, and veterinary nurses and technicians must ensure they work within local legislation and regulating body guidelines at all times. Any products or treatments discussed are for information only and do not constitute endorsements of products or services.