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Workbook for McCurnin's
Clinical Textbook for Veterinary
Technicians and Nurses

TENTH EDITION

Joanna M. Bassert

Angela D. Beal

Oreta M. Samples
Table of Contents

Cover image

Title page

Copyright
Part One: Veterinary Nursing and Technology: An
Overview

1: Introduction to Veterinary Nursing and Technology: Its Laws and


Ethics

Exercise 1.1 Fill-In-The-Blank: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 1.2 Matching #1: Acronyms Related to Associations,


Agencies, and Committees

Exercise 1.3 Matching #2: Acronyms Related to Certifications,


Laws, and Other Entities

Exercise 1.4 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 1.5 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 1.6 Fill-In-The-Chart: Identify Levels of Supervision

Exercise 1.7 Case Study: Professional Ethics


2: Veterinary Practice Management

Exercise 2.1 Definitions

Exercise 2.2 Matching #1: Key Terms and Definitions Related to


Finances

Exercise 2.3 Matching #2: Key Terms and Definitions Related to


Veterinary Facilities

Exercise 2.4 Matching #3: Employee Positions

Exercise 2.5 Matching #4: Marketing

Exercise 2.6 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 2.7 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 2.8 Case Study #1: Veterinary Practice Management

Exercise 2.9 Case Study #2: Diffusing Anger

3: Veterinary Medical Records

Exercise 3.1 Fill-In-The-Blank: Key Terms and Definitions

Exercise 3.2 Matching #1: Technician Soap Notes

Exercise 3.3 Matching #2: Technician Evaluations

Exercise 3.4 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 3.5 Short Answer: Problem-Oriented Veterinary


Medical Records (POVMR)

4: Occupational Health and Safety in Veterinary Hospitals

Exercise 4.1 Matching #1: Key Terms—Infectious Agents


Exercise 4.2 Matching #2: Key Terms—Acronyms

Exercise 4.3 Matching #3: Key Terms—Conditions

Exercise 4.4 Matching #4: Classification of Medical Waste

Exercise 4.5 Fill-In-The-Blank: Comprehensive

Exercise 4.6 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 4.7 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 4.8 Case Study #1: Fire and Evacuation

Exercise 4.9 Case Study #2: Rights and Responsibilities Under


Osha

Part Two: Patient Mu and Nutrition

5: Animal Behavior

Exercise 5.1 Matching #1: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 5.2 Matching #2: Types of Conditioning

Exercise 5.3 Picture Quiz: Dog and Cat Body Language

Exercise 5.4 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 5.5 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 5.6 Case Study #1: Housetraining a Puppy

Exercise 5.7 Case Study #2: Choosing a New Pet

Exercise 5.8 Case Study #3: The Veterinary Nurse’s Role in


Supporting Animal Behavior
6: Restraint and Handling of Animals

Exercise 6.1 Terms and Definitions: Animal Restraint

Exercise 6.2 Matching #1: Key Terms and Definitions

Exercise 6.3 Matching #2: Restraint Techniques for Uxotic


Species

Exercise 6.4 Photo Quiz: Restraint Techniques

Exercise 6.5 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 6.6 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 6.7 Case Study: Recapturing An Escaped Cat

7: History and Physical Examination

Exercise 7.1 Fill-In-The-Blank: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 7.2 Matching #1: Medical History

Exercise 7.3 Matching #2: Key Terms

Exercise 7.4 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 7.5 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 7.6 Fill-In-The-Chart: Regurgitation and Vomiting

Exercise 7.7 Fill-In-The-Chart: Reflex Responses

Exercise 7.8 Fill In The Chart: Cranial Nerve Examination

Exercise 7.9 Case Study: History and Physical Examination


Findings
8: Preventive Health Programs

Exercise 8.1 Terms and Definitions: Preventative Health


Programs

Exercise 8.2 Matching: Abbreviations Related to Preventive


Health Programs for Dogs and Cats

Exercise 8.3 Fill-In-The-Blank: Comprehensive

Exercise 8.4 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 8.5 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 8.6 Word Search: Preventive Health Programs for


Horses and Livestock

Exercise 8.7 Case Study: Feline Preventive Health

9: Animal Nutrition

Exercise 9.1 Crossword Puzzle: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 9.2 Matching #1: Key Terms

Exercise 9.3 Matching #2: Energy Partitioning

Exercise 9.4 Matching #3: Pet Food Labels

Exercise 9.5 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 9.6 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 9.7 Fill-In-The-Blank: Comprehensive

Exercise 9.8 Case Study #1: Weight Loss

Exercise 9.9 Case Study #2: Hospitalized Patient


10: Animal Reproduction

Exercise 10.1 Crossword Puzzle: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 10.2 Terms and Definitions

Exercise 10.3 Matching #1: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 10.4 Matching #2: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 10.5 Ordering: Breeding Soundness Examination in


the Male

Exercise 10.6 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 10.7 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 10.8 Fill-in-the-Blank: Comprehensive

Exercise 10.9 Case Study: Parturition

Part Three: Clinical Sciences

11: Hematology and Cytology

Exercise 11.1 Crossword Puzzle: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 11.2 Matching #1: Abbreviations Related To


Hematology and Coagulation

Exercise 11.3 Matching #2: Nucleated Cells Seen On a Blood


Smear Exam

Exercise 11.4 Matching #3: Hemostasis

Exercise 11.5 Matching #4: Abnormal Body Cavity Fluids and


Associated Causes
Exercise 11.6 Photo Quiz: Photographs of Red Blood Cells With
Shape Changes

Exercise 11.7 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 11.8 Multiple Choice: comprehensive

Exercise 11.9 Fill-In-The-Blank: Comprehensive

Exercise 11.10 Case Study: Immune-Mediated Hemolytic


Anemia (IMHA) and Thrombocytopenia (ITP)

12: Clinical Chemistry, Serology, and Urinalysis

Exercise 12.1 Fill-In-The-Blank: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 12.2 Matching #1: The Appearance of Normal and


Abnormal Blood Serum

Exercise 12.3 Matching #2: Elisa Serology Assay

Exercise 12.4 Matching #3: The Significance of Specific Gravity


Values

Exercise 12.5 Matching #4: Chemical Evaluation of Urine

Exercise 12.6 Matching #5: Constituents of A Routine Chemistry


Panel

Exercise 12.7 Photo Quiz: Photographs of Urine Crystals

Exercise 12.8 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 12.9 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 12.10 Fill-In-The-Blank: Comprehensive

Exercise 12.11 Case Study: Presurgical Panel on A Young Dog


13: Parasitology

Exercise 13.1 Fill-In-The-Blank: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 13.2 Defining Key Terms

Exercise 13.3 Matching #1: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 13.4 Matching #2: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 13.5 Matching #3: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 13.6 Photo Quiz: Photographs of Parasites

Exercise 13.7 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 13.8 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 13.9 Case Study: Parasite Infection in A Puppy

14: Clinical Microbiology

Exercise 14.1 Crossword Puzzle: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 14.2 Terms and Definitions: Infectious Agents

Exercise 14.3 Matching #1: Culture Media

Exercise 14.4 Matching #2: Gram-Positive Organisms

Exercise 14.5 Matching #3: Gram-Negative Organisms

Exercise 14.6 Ordering: Elisa Test For A Viral Protein Or Antigen

Exercise 14.7 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 14.8 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 14.9 Fill-In-The-Blank: Comprehensive


Exercise 14.10 Case Study: Performing A Quantified Urine
Culture

15: Diagnostic Imaging

Exercise 15.1 Crossword Puzzle: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 15.2 Matching #1: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 15.3 Matching #2: Screen Speed and Characteristics

Exercise 15.4 Matching #3: Factors that Affect Radiographic


Density

Exercise 15.5 Matching #4: Ultrasound Artifacts and


Interpretations

Exercise 15.6 Matching #5: X-ray Radiographic Artifacts and


Technical Errors

Exercise 15.7 Photo Quiz: Parts of The X-Ray Tube

Exercise 15.8 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 15.9 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 15.10 Fill-In-The-Blank: Comprehensive

Exercise 15.11 Case Study: Minimizing Radiation Exposure

16: Basic Necropsy Procedures

Exercise 16.1 Crossword Puzzle: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 16.2 Definitions: Key Terms


Exercise 16.3 Matching: Instruments and Supplies Used for A
Necropsy

Exercise 16.4 Ordering: Performing A Necropsy

Exercise 16.5 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 16.6 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 16.7 Fill-In-The-Blank: Comprehensive

Exercise 16.8 Case Study: Performing A Necropsy On A Rabies


Suspect

Part Four: Medical Nursing

17: Diagnostic Sampling and Therapeutic Techniques

Exercise 17.1 Fill-in-The-Blank: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 17.2 Matching #1: Indications For Clinical Procedures

Exercise 17.3 Matching #2: Supplies For Clinical Procedures

Exercise 17.4 Matching #3: Urine Collection in Large Animals

Exercise 17.5 Matching #4: Sites for Subcutaneous Injection

Exercise 17.6 Table #1: Routes of Medication Administration in


Small Animals

Exercise 17.7 Table #2: Comprehensive

Exercise 17.8 Table #3: Catheterization of A Peripheral Vein

Exercise 17.9 Table #4: Arterial Blood Sample Collection


Exercise 17.10 Photo Quiz #1: Diagnostic Sampling and
Therapeutic Techniques

Exercise 17.11 Photo Quiz #2: Intravenous Catheters

Exercise 17.12 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 17.13 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 17.14 Case Study: Respiratory Distress in A Cat

18: Small Animal Medical Nursing

Exercise 18.1 Fill-In-The-Blank #1: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 18.2 Definitions: Key Terms

Exercise 18.3 Matching #1: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 18.4 Matching #2: Diseases and Conditions

Exercise 18.5 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 18.6 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 18.7 Fill-In-The-Blank #2: Comprehensive

Exercise 18.8 Case Study #1: Diseases Affecting the Thyroid


Gland

Exercise 18.9 Case Study #2: The Veterinary Technician


Practice Model

19: Large Animal Medical Nursing

Exercise 19.1 Crossword puzzle: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 19.2 Matching #1: Terms and Definitions


Exercise 19.3 Matching #2: Diseases of Ruminants

Exercise 19.4 Matching #3: Diseases of Pigs

Exercise 19.5 Matching #4: Body Condition Score (BCS) for


Sheep

Exercise 19.6 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 19.7 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 19.8 Case Study #1: Equine Infectious Anemia

Exercise 19.9 Case Study #2: Equine Gastric Ulcers

Exercise 19.10 Case Study #3: Dermatophilosis and Culicoides


Hypersensitivity

Exercise 19.11 Case Study #4: Rearing Lambs

Exercise 19.12 Case Study #5: Care of Neonatal Crias

20: Veterinary Oncology

Exercise 20.1 Matching #1: Identifying Types of Tumors

Exercise 20.2 Matching #2: Types of Medicine

Exercise 20.3 Fundamental Characteristics of Cancer Cells

Exercise 20.4 Matching #3: Tumor Classification

Exercise 20.5 Fill-in-the-Blank: Characteristics of Common


Tumors

Exercise 20.6 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 20.7 Fill-in-the-Blank: Comprehensive


Exercise 20.8 Case Study: Bladder Cancer in Buffy, a Mixed-
Breed Dog

21: Neonatal Care of Puppies, Ki ens, and Foals

Exercise 21.1 crossword puzzle: terms and definitions

Exercise 21.2 definitions: common diseases and conditions of


neonatal foals

Exercise 21.3 matching: the neonatal foal

Exercise 21.4 true or false: comprehensive

Exercise 21.5 multiple choice: comprehensive

Exercise 21.6 fill-in-the-blank: neonatology of puppies and


kittens

Exercise 21.7 case study: postpartum examination of a litter of


puppies

22: Care of Birds, Reptiles, and Small Mammals

Exercise 22.1 Definitions: Key Terms

Exercise 22.2 Fill-In-The-Blank: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 22.3 Matching: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 22.4 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 22.5 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 22.6 Case Study: Guinea Pig Nutrition, Husbandry,


and Preventive Care
23: Rehabilitation and Alternative Medical Nursing

Exercise 23.1 Definitions: Key Terms

Exercise 23.2 Matching #1: Key Terms and Definitions

Exercise 23.3 Matching #2: Herb Dosing Forms

Exercise 23.4 Matching #3: Alternative Therapies

Exercise 23.5 Matching #4: Rehabilitation—Physical


Dysfunctions

Exercise 23.6 Matching #5: Rehabilitation—Therapeutic


Exercises

Exercise 23.7 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 23.8 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 23.9 Fill-in-the-Blank: Comprehensive

Exercise 23.10 Case Study #1: Rehabilitation and


Complementary Modalities

Exercise 23.11 Case Study #2: Rehabilitation and


Complementary Modalities

Exercise 23.12 Case Study #3: Rehabilitation and


Complementary Modalities

Exercise 23.13 Case Study #4: Commonly Used Nutraceuticals


and Chondroprotectants

Exercise 23.14 Case Study #5: Rehabilitation and


Complementary Modalities

Part Five: Emergency and Critical Care


24: Fluid Therapy and Transfusion Medicine

Exercise 24.1 Fill-in-the-Blank #1: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 24.2 Matching #1: Body Fluid Compartments

Exercise 24.3 Matching #2: Body Tonicity of Intravenous Fluids

Exercise 24.4 Matching #3: Blood Group Factors

Exercise 24.5 Matching #4: Ideal and Universal Blood Donors

Exercise 24.6 Matching #5: Blood Products

Exercise 24.7 True or false: Comprehensive

Exercise 24.8 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 24.9 Fill-in-the-Blank #2: Comprehensive

Exercise 24.10 Case Study #1: IV Fluid Therapy

Exercise 24.11 Case Study #2: IV Fluid Therapy and


Transfusion Therapy

25: Emergency and Critical Care Nursing

Exercise 25.1 Fill-in-the-Blank #1: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 25.2 Definitions: Key Terms

Exercise 25.3 Matching #1: Terms and Definitions Related to


Procedures

Exercise 25.4 Matching #2: Breathing Patterns

Exercise 25.5 Matching #3: Mentation

Exercise 25.6 Matching #4: Evaluation of Pupils and Posture


Exercise 25.7 Matching #5: Types of Shock

Exercise 25.8 Matching #6: Abnormal Rhythms and Treatments

Exercise 25.9 Matching #7: Drugs Used Following


Cardiopulmonary Arrest (CPA)

Exercise 25.10 Matching #8: Electrocardiographic Waveforms

Exercise 25.11 Photo Quiz: ECG Tracings

Exercise 25.12 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 25.13 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 25.14 Fill-in-the-Blank #2: Comprehensive

Exercise 25.15 Case Study: Management of Recumbent


Patients

26: Toxicology

Exercise 26.1 Matching #1: Key Terms—Infectious Agents

Exercise 26.2 Matching #2: Classification of Toxins

Exercise 26.3 Completing Treatment Options: Orally Ingested


Toxins

Exercise 26.4 Fill-in-the-Blank: Comprehensive

Exercise 26.5 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 26.6 Short Answer: Comprehensive

27: Wound Management and Bandaging

Exercise 27.1 Crossword Puzzle: Terms and Definitions


Exercise 27.2 Matching #1: Wound Classifications

Exercise 27.3 Matching #2: Bandages, Slings, Splints, and


Casts

Exercise 27.4 Matching #3: Wound Closure and Healing

Exercise 27.5 Matching #4: Burns

Exercise 27.6 Matching #5: Bandage Materials

Exercise 27.7 Photo Quiz: Bandages, Casts, and Slings

Exercise 27.8 Ordering: Applying a Cast to a Horse’s Limb

Exercise 27.9 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 27.10 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 27.11 Fill-in-the-Blank: Comprehensive

Exercise 27.12 Case Study: Wound Care

Part Six: Anesthesia, Analgesia, and Pharmacology

28: Pharmacology and Pharmacy

Exercise 28.1 Crossword Puzzle: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 28.2 Matching #1: Terms Related to Regulatory Issues

Exercise 28.3 Matching #2: Drugs and Their Primary Indications

Exercise 28.4 Matching #3: Adverse Drug Reactions

Exercise 28.5 Matching #4: Antibacterial Drugs

Exercise 28.6 Matching #5: Mechanism of Action


Exercise 28.7 Matching #6: Drugs Used to Treat Gastrointestinal
Disease

Exercise 28.8 Matching #7: Drugs Used to Treat Cardiovascular


Disease

Exercise 28.9 Matching #8: Drugs Prohibited for Use in Food-


Producing Animals

Exercise 28.10 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 28.11 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 28.12 Fill-in-the-Blank: Comprehensive

Exercise 28.13 Dosage Calculations: Comprehensive

Exercise 28.14 Case Study #1: Veterinarian–Client–Patient


Relationship

Exercise 28.15 Case Study #2: Dispensing Medications

29: Pain Management

Exercise 29.1 Matching #1: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 29.2 Matching #2: Expected Level of Pain Associated


with Common Conditions and Procedures

Exercise 29.3 Matching #3: Analgesics and Analgesic Classes

Exercise 29.4 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 29.5 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 29.6 Fill-in-the-Blank: Comprehensive


Exercise 29.7 Case Study: Administering Analgesics by
Constant Rate Infusion

30: Veterinary Anesthesia

Exercise 30.1 Crossword Puzzle: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 30.2 Matching #1: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 30.3 Matching #2: Anesthetic Machine Parts and


Descriptions

Exercise 30.4 Matching #3: Complications of Endotracheal


Intubation and Causes

Exercise 30.5 Matching #4: Monitoring Equipment and


Parameters

Exercise 30.6 Photo Quiz: Endotracheal Tube Parts

Exercise 30.7 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 30.8 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 30.9 Fill-in-the-Blank: Comprehensive

Exercise 30.10 Case Study: Comprehensive

Part Seven: Surgical Nursing

31: Surgical Instruments and Aseptic Technique

Exercise 31.1 Crossword Puzzle: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 31.2 Definitions: Key Terms

Exercise 31.3 Matching: Surgical Instruments


Exercise 31.4 Photo Quiz #1: Surgical Instrument Parts

Exercise 31.5 Photo Quiz #2: Surgical Instruments

Exercise 31.6 Photo Quiz #3: Surgical Instrument Tray

Exercise 31.7 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 31.8 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 31.9 Fill-in-the-Blank: Comprehensive

Exercise 31.10 Case Study: Instrument Cleaning and Packing

Exercise 31.11 Word Search: Terms

32: Surgical Assistance and Suture Material

Exercise 32.1 Matching #1: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 32.2 Matching #2: Characteristics of Suture Material

Exercise 32.3 Matching #3: Trade and Generic Names of Suture


Material

Exercise 32.4 Matching #4: Classification of Suture Material

Exercise 32.5 Photo Quiz: Surgical Assistance

Exercise 32.6 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 32.7 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 32.8 Case Study: Suture Needles

33: Small Animal Surgical Nursing

Exercise 33.1 Crossword Puzzle: Terms and Definitions


Exercise 33.2 Definitions: Key Terms

Exercise 33.3 Matching: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 33.4 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 33.5 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 33.6 Fill-in-the-Blank: Comprehensive

Exercise 33.7 Case Study #1: Delivery of Puppies By Cesarean


Section

Exercise 33.8 Case Study #2: Monitoring for Postoperative


Bleeding

Exercise 33.9 Uord Search: Terms

34: Large Animal Surgical Nursing

Exercise 34.1 Definitions: Key Terms

Exercise 34.2 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 34.3 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 34.4 Fill-in-the-Blank #1: Surgical Nursing of Food


Animals

Exercise 34.5 Fill-in-the-Blank #2: Surgical Nursing of Horses

35: Veterinary Dentistry

Exercise 35.1 Crossword Puzzle: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 35.2 Matching #1: Dental Morphology

Exercise 35.3 Matching #2: Triadan Numbering System


Exercise 35.4 Matching #3: Clinical Stages of Periodontal
Disease

Exercise 35.5 Matching #4: Home Dental Care Brushing


Techniques

Exercise 35.6 Matching #5: Local Anesthetic Agents

Exercise 35.7 Matching #6: Dental Nerve Blocks

Exercise 35.8 Photo Quiz: Comprehensive

Exercise 35.9 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 35.10 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 35.11 Fill-in-the-Blank: Comprehensive

Exercise 35.12 Case Study: Professional Dental Cleaning

Part Eight: End Of Life

36: Geriatric and Hospice Care: Supporting the Aged and Dying
Patient

Exercise 36.1 Definitions: Terms and Definitions

Exercise 36.2 Matching: Equine Recurrent Uveitis (ERU)

Exercise 36.3 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 36.4 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 36.5 Fill-in-the-Blank: Comprehensive

Exercise 36.6 Short Answer: Comprehensive


37: The Human-Animal Bond and Euthanasia

Exercise 37.1 Matching: Terms and definitions

Exercise 37.2 Definitions: Key terms

Exercise 37.3 True or False: Comprehensive

Exercise 37.4 Multiple Choice: Comprehensive

Exercise 37.5 Fill-In-The-Blank: Comprehensive

Exercise 37.6 Matching: Pre-Sedation, Anesthesia, and


Euthanasia Drugs

Exercise 37.7 Case study #1: Helping Clients Through The


Grieving Process
Copyright

Elsevier
3251 Riverport Lane
St. Louis, Missouri 63043

WORKBOOK FOR MCCURNIN'S CLINICAL TEXTBOOK FOR


VETERINARY
TECHNICIANS AND NURSES , TENTH EDITION

ISBN: 9780323765107

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Technicians and Nurses by Bassert, may reproduce the contents or
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PA R T O N E
Veterinary Nursing and
Technology: An Overview
1: Introduction to Veterinary
Nursing and Technology: Its
Laws and Ethics

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to:

1. Pronounce, define, and spell all of the key terms in this


chapter.
2. Describe the events from 1963 to 2019 that led to the
development of modern veterinary technology in the United
States and Canada.
3. Describe the educational and credentialing requirements
established in most states and provinces for entry into the
profession of veterinary technology.
4. Explain the structure, format, and scheduling of the VTNE.
5. List the six features that characterize the profession.
6. Describe the five steps of the veterinary technician practice
model.
7. Describe the scope of practice for veterinary technicians and
list five duties performed only by veterinarians.
8. Describe areas of responsibility for veterinary technicians in
clinical practice.
9. List the members of the veterinary health care team and
describe their respective roles; include a list of the
veterinary technician academies recognized by NAVTA in
your definition of veterinary technician specialist.
10. Describe professional appearance, conduct, and
communication.
11. Name the organizations represented by the acronyms
AVMA, CVMA, CVTEA, NAVTA, AAVSB, and RVTTC and
describe their roles in the education and credentialing of
veterinary technicians.
12. Describe professional ethics.
13. Differentiate between statutes (laws) and regulations.
14. Describe the role of state boards in the credentialing of
veterinary professionals.
15. List possible grounds for disciplinary action by state or
provincial boards, list three levels of supervision defined in
the NAVTA Model Rules and Regulations, and describe
how these levels affect the veterinary technician’s scope of
practice.
16. Describe steps and possible sanctions carried out during
disciplinary action against a licensee.
17. Describe how laws related to labor, medical waste,
controlled substances, and animals relate to the profession
of veterinary technology.
18. Name and describe laws that are specific to Canada
regarding animals.

Exercise 1.1 Fill-In-The-Blank: Terms


and Definitions
1. ____________________________ carry out the orders of the
veterinarian and perform all animal care duties except those
that by law may only be performed by the veterinarian.
2. A(n) ____________________________ may prognose,
diagnose, and prescribe.
3. The ____________________________ developed the
Commi ee on Veterinary Technician Specialties (CVTS) to
help guide and structure the development of specialties for
veterinary technicians.
4. In the United States, the profession of veterinary technology,
or nursing, is structured by ____________________________
in each state.
5. The veterinary technician performs a patient
____________________________, then prioritizes the patient’s
problems so that the most life-threatening issues are
addressed first.
6. The veterinary technician ____________________________
consists of five steps that are performed cyclically throughout
a patient's hospitalization period.
7. The ____________________________ is designed to evaluate
the competency of entry-level veterinary technicians.
8. NAVTA has recognized 12 areas of
____________________________ in veterinary technology.
9. Step three of the veterinary technician practice model
includes establishing a series of nursing
____________________________ to address the patient’s care
needs.
10. ____________________________ are responsible for assisting
the veterinary technician and the veterinarian by restraining
animals, se ing up equipment and supplies, cleaning and
maintaining practice and laboratory facilities, and feeding
and exercising patients.

Exercise 1.2 Matching #1: Acronyms


Related to Associations, Agencies,
and Committees
Instructions: Match each acronym in column A with the corresponding
description in column B by writing the appropriate le er in the space
provided.
Column
Column B
A
1. ____ A. The commi ee that accredits veterinary technology programs in the
AALAS United States under the auspices of the AVMA
2. ____ B. A Canadian association that has established a certification program for
CVMA laboratory animals technicians
3. ____ C. The agency that coadministers the Endangered Species Act in the United
AAVSB States
4. ____ D. An association dedicated to strengthening the registered veterinary
RVTCC technologist profession in Canada
5. ____ E. An organization that accredits veterinary technology programs in
ACC Canada
6. ____ F. A commi ee that works with research and educational institutions in the
CALAS United States to help ensure compliance with and to enforce the Animal
7. ____ Welfare Act
IACUC G. A professional association in the United States that has established a
8. ____ certification program that certifies laboratory animal technicians
AVTE H. A group whose members are primarily instructors, staff, and managers
9. ____ of veterinary technology programs
CVTEA I. The organization responsible for appointing members of the Veterinary
10. ____ Technician National Exam Commi ee (VTNE)
US J. A commi ee that oversees the care and use of animals in education and
FWS research in Canada
11. ____ K. The organization responsible for accrediting U.S. programs of veterinary
AVMA technology

Exercise 1.3 Matching #2: Acronyms


Related to Certifications, Laws, and
Other Entities
Instructions: Match each acronym in column A with the corresponding
description in column B by writing the appropriate le er in the space
provided.
Column
Column B
A
Column
Column B
A
1. ____ A. The second highest level of certification for technicians caring for
RACE laboratory animals in the United States
2. ____ B. A designation that a veterinary technician has the credentials to qualify
ALAT as a specialist
3. ____ C. The highest level of certification for technicians caring for laboratory
VTS animals in the United States
4. ____ D. A program administered by the AAVSB to uphold quality standards of
RMLAT continuing education
5. ____ E. An entity that works with the AAVSB to develop the Veterinary
LATG Technician National Exam
6. ____ F. The U.S. law that requires minimum standards of care and treatment be
AWA provided for some warm-blooded animals bred for commercial sale, used
7. ____ in research and higher education, transported commercially, and
LAT exhibited to the public
8. ____ G. A law designed to protect horses from the practice of “soring”
VTNE H. The first level of certification for technicians caring for laboratory
9. ____ animals
HPA I. The highest level of certification for technicians caring for laboratory
10. ____ animals in Canada
PES J. A passing score on this test is required to practice in most states and
provinces

Exercise 1.4 True or False:


Comprehensive
Instructions: Read the following statements and write “T” for true or “F”
for false in the blanks provided. If the statement is false, correct the
statement to make it true.

1. ____ Graduates of accredited Canadian Veterinary


Technology programs are eligible for recognition in the
United States.
2. ____ Most states and provinces require veterinary technicians
to a end continuing education (CE) lectures and workshops
to maintain licensure, certification, or registration.
3. ____ An additional 20 new questions are added to each
VTNE, but these additional questions do not count toward
the final score of the candidate.
4. ____ Veterinary technicians are prohibited from entering drug
prescriptions onto the patient’s record.
5. ____ According to the American Association of Veterinary
State Boards (AAVSB) Veterinary Technology State Practice
Act Model, a veterinary technician may provide a patient’s
chances of recovery to a client.
6. ____ Routine dental procedures are often performed by
veterinary technicians.
7. ____ Routinely hospitalized patients, as well as emergency
and critical care patients, should be evaluated using the same
five-step systematic approach.
8. ____ Employment opportunities for veterinary technicians are
expected to grow at a much faster rate than the average for
all occupations.
9. ____ In order to call himself or herself a specialist, a
veterinarian must be board-certified by a specialty
organization.
10. ____ Because animals are often messy, uniforms are
uncommon in small animal veterinary practices.
11. ____ The veterinary technician’s professional apparel must
include a watch with a second hand.
12. ____ The medical record is a legal document owned by the
client but housed at the veterinary practice or supervising
institution.
13. ____ Your e-mail address does not reflect on your level of
professionalism.
14. ____ The practice act in most states includes a definition of
the practice of veterinary medicine and veterinary
technology, although in some states, the board has been left
to define the practice of veterinary technology.
15. ____ The unlicensed practice of veterinary medicine is a
criminal offense.
16. ____ Violations of laws or regulations may be punishable by
fines or imprisonment.
17. ____ Someone convicted of crimes of moral turpitude may be
denied a license to practice veterinary technology.
18. ____ Most jurisdictions require professional licensees,
including veterinary technicians, to complete continuing
education to renew their licenses.
19. ____ In virtually every state, a licensee may be prosecuted
and disciplined for misconduct, even if the licensee’s
misconduct did not cause any harm to an animal.
20. ____ A veterinary technician may legally be the signatory on
a document requiring the veterinarian’s signature.
21. ____ A licensee may be prosecuted and disciplined for
misrepresentation, which may include telling a client that a
certain treatment will cure a patient.
22. ____ A licensee may be prosecuted and disciplined for
animal abuse, animal neglect, or animal cruelty.
23. ____ An unlicensed veterinarian may function as a veterinary
technician.
24. ____ Any licensed person who assists an unlicensed person
in performing tasks that the statute includes as the practice
of the profession may be aiding unlicensed practice.
25. ____ Many states have continuing education requirements
for veterinary technicians.
26. ____ If a licensee is found guilty of malpractice, the board can
direct a monetary award be paid to the animal’s owner.
27. ____ The patient does not have to suffer any injury for the
professional to be disciplined for malpractice.
28. ____ Veterinarians can be found negligent or guilty of
malpractice because of the actions of a staff member.
29. ____ Whenever a veterinary technician is disciplined by a
licensing board for exceeding the technician’s authorized
scope of practice, the veterinarian responsible for
supervising the technician may also be disciplined.
30. ____ When you are summoned to a disciplinary hearing by
the board, an a orney must be appointed by the board to
represent you.
31. ____ The Occupational Safety and Health Act confirms that
all workers have a fundamental right to a safe workplace.
32. ____ Veterinarians are prohibited from using controlled
substances in the practice of veterinary medicine.
33. ____ Private veterinary hospitals are inspected by the USDA
under the Animal Welfare Act.

Exercise 1.5 Multiple Choice:


Comprehensive
Instructions: Circle the one correct answer to each of the following
questions.

1. Which organization or agency accredits veterinary technology


programs in the United States?
a. State boards
b. NAVTA
c. AVMA
d. AAHA
2. Which of the following is a recognized area of specialty for a
veterinary technician?
a. Veterinary otolaryngologist
b. Veterinary psychologist
c. Veterinary pulmonologist
d. Veterinary behavior technician
3. Which organization or agency has established veterinary
technician specialties?
a. State boards
b. NAVTA
c. AVMA
d. AAHA
4. What was the average salary for veterinary technicians
nationwide in 2019?
a. $18,500
b. $22,500
c. $34,420
d. $40,500
5. Approximately how many recommended and essential tasks
are listed in the CVTEA handbook?
a. 250
b. 350
c. 450
d. 550
6. One of the most important duties for the veterinary
technician in surgery is
a. scrubbing the patient.
b. washing the instruments and preparing surgical packs.
c. placing the catheter.
d. administering and monitoring anesthesia.
7. What is the format of the VTNE?
a. Essay questions
b. Multiple choice questions
c. Short answer questions
d. Short answer and multiple choice questions
8. Where are the VTNEs administered?
a. Veterinary technology schools
b. Veterinary schools
c. Board of Veterinary Medicine conference rooms
d. Testing centers throughout North America
9. To whom does a veterinary technology student apply to take
the VTNE?
a. AAVSB
b. AVMA
c. State Board of Veterinary Medicine
d. PES
10. Which of the following merits the highest priority in patient
intervention?
a. Chronic pain
b. Acute pain
c. Inadequate oxygenation
d. Diarrhea
11. Which U.S. veterinary school awards the VMD degree rather
than the DVM?
a. University of Virginia
b. University of Georgia
c. Tufts University
d. University of Pennsylvania
12. The designation of VTS (veterinary technician specialist) is
awarded by which of the following types of organizations?
a. An academy
b. A college
c. A board
d. A society
13. The treatment of animals used in research facilities and
teaching institutions is regulated by which government
agency?
a. AVMA
b. AWA (USDA)
c. HSUS
d. Board of Veterinary Medicine
14. Graduates of AVMA- and CVMA-accredited programs must
complete how much additional training in a registered
facility before they are eligible for the Level 1 ALAT
examination?
a. 2 years
b. 1 year
c. 6 months
d. 90 days
15. Which of these organizations wrote the veterinary technician
code of ethics, the veterinary technician oath, and the
veterinary technician portion of the Model Practice Act?
a. AVMA
b. CVTEA
c. NAVTA
d. AALAS
16. When is National Veterinary Technician week?
a. The first week in November
b. The third week in October
c. The second week in May
d. The second week in February
17. Who has the ultimate decision-making authority over the
care provided to an owned animal?
a. The a ending veterinarian
b. The state
c. The owner
d. The veterinary technician
18. What is the overriding purpose of the board of veterinary
medicine?
a. To protect the public
b. To protect the animals
c. To protect the veterinary profession
d. To protect the veterinary and veterinary technology
professions
19. Malpractice is also known as ________________.
a. unprofessional conduct
b. negligence
c. misrepresentation
d. an illegal act
20. Conduct that increases the risk that negligence will occur,
even if negligence has not yet actually occurred, is known as
________________.
a. malpractice
b. unprofessional conduct
c. incompetence
d. practicing beyond the scope of veterinary medicine
21. What is considered the most severe penalty a board may
impose?
a. Revocation of a license
b. Monetary fine
c. Imprisonment
d. Closing of the hospital
22. What is the term for the public censure of a licensee without
suspension or probation?
a. Ridicule
b. Dunking
c. Prohibition
d. Reprimand
23. Which act establishes that USDA-registered facilities have
IACUC (Institute of Animal Care and Use Commi ees)?
a. Animal Welfare Act
b. Occupational Safety Act
c. Controlled Substance Act
d. Medical Waste Tracking Act
24. The Horse Protection Act protects horses against which
procedure?
a. Slaughter
b. Soring
c. Castration without anesthesia
d. Nerving
25. Which government agency co-enforces the Endangered
Species Act?
a. USDA
b. DEA
c. Commerce department
d. FWS

Exercise 1.6 Fill-In-The-Chart: Identify


Levels of Supervision
Use check marks to indicate which type of supervision is required in order
for the licensed, registered, or certified veterinary technician to perform the
following tasks.
Immediate Direct Indirect
Task
Supervision Supervision Supervision
Euthanasia
Intravenous catheterizations
Dental procedures
Inducing anesthesia
Blood collection
Radiography
Applying a splint
Handling biohazardous waste
Dental extraction not requiring
sectioning of the tooth
Administering immunologic agents by
parenteral routes
Exercise 1.7 Case Study: Professional
Ethics
1. You moved to a small town in a state that requires veterinary
technicians to be licensed by the board. You secure a job in a
two-veterinarian clinic; you are the only LVT in the practice
and obtain a license. You spend the first week shadowing the
veterinarians in the examination rooms with clients and
assisting with canine and feline spays. The practices appear
to provide quality medicine and surgery. The following
week, you are left alone in the treatment area to collect
samples, perform lab tests, and administer medications. You
notice that an assistant is taking dogs and cats in and out of a
room in the rear of the clinic, and when you walk in, you find
someone you have not met performing castrations. When
you ask the assistant about the situation, you are told that
although he is not a veterinarian, he has worked at the
practice for more than 25 years and has always performed
neuters in the practice.
a. How should you respond to this situation?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
b. Should you say anything to the veterinarians? You are
still in your probationary period.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
c. What are your legal and/or ethical responsibilities in this
situation?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
2: Veterinary Practice
Management

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to:

1. Pronounce, spell, and define each of the key terms in this


chapter.
2. List the terms used to describe various types of veterinary
facilities.
3. List the roles and responsibilities of each member of the
veterinary health care team.
4. Describe the basic flow of clients, patients, and employees
through a typical veterinary hospital.
5. Outline the key elements of effectively working with clients,
including the importance of communication skills, myths
about communication skills, and how to diffuse the anger of
difficult clients.
6. Describe the major job management functions needed to run
a veterinary hospital effectively.
7. Describe the primary components of excellent practice
management.
8. List examples of stressors in the veterinary workplace and
describe ways to ameliorate the effects of those stressors on
personnel.
9. Describe the major areas in which veterinary practices
employ internal and external marketing techniques.
10. List some of the major tasks associated with good financial
management.
11. List reasons why management and financial analysis are
important to the business of veterinary medicine.
12. Discuss the importance of efficient operations for practice
revenue.
13. Discuss key areas in which computerization adds to the
efficiency and productivity of a veterinary practice.

Exercise 2.1 Definitions


Instructions: Define each term in your own words.

1.
Clinic:________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
_______________________
2. Outpatient:
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
_____________
3. Strategic planning:
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
_______
4. Walk-in system:
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
_________
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Then he turned to Dormer, hunted a moment among the papers on
the table, and spoke:
“Look here, Dormer, about this affair of yours?”
It took all Dormer’s training to keep his mouth shut. He saw more
clearly than ever how Colonel Birchin and all like him and all he
represented, were divesting themselves of any connection with what
looked like a nasty, awkward, tedious and probably discreditable
business. But he had not grasped it.
“They’ve found Andrews—this—er—gunner, who will be able to give
you information. And—look here, Dormer—this affair must be
cleared up, do you understand? Andrews is in hospital. You can go
by car to Boulogne, but we expect you to get it done this time. Corps
are most annoyed. There’s been a nice how-d-y-do with the French.”
Dormer swallowed twice and only said:
“Really, sir.”
“Yes. Car starts at seven.”
Accordingly at seven, the big Vauxhall moved off from that little
group of huts, in the meadow that was so regularly bombed every
night. Dormer, sitting next to Major Stevenage, did not mind. As well
Boulogne as anywhere, while this was going on. All the roads were
full of transport, all the railways one long procession of troop and
supply trains. It was about as possible to hide it all from the
Germans, as to conceal London on a Bank Holiday. In fact it was
rather like that. The population was about the same, if the area were
rather larger, the effect of the crowd, the surly good humour, the air
of eating one’s dinner out of one’s hand was the same.
There was very little sign of any consciousness of the shadow that
hung over it all. Hospital trains and ambulances abounded, going in
the opposite direction, but no one noticed them, so far as Dormer
could see. The type of man who now came up to fight his country’s
battles was little changed. The old regular was hardly to be found.
The brisk volunteer was almost gone. Instead there had arisen a
generation that had grown used to the War, had had it on their minds
so long, had been threatened with it so often that it had lost all
sharpness of appeal to their intellects.
Right back to St. Omer the crowd stretched. Beyond that it became
more specialized. Air Force. Hospitals. Training grounds. Then,
across high windy downs, nothing, twenty miles of nothing, until a
long hill and the sea.
Up there on those downs where there was no one, never had been
anybody ever since they were pushed up from the bed of some
antediluvian ocean, and covered with short turf, Dormer had one of
his rare respites from the War. Briefer perhaps, but more complete
than that which he experienced on his rare leaves, he felt for a while
the emancipation from his unwilling thraldom. It was the speed of the
car that probably induced the feeling. Anyhow, on the level road that
runs from Boulogne to Étaples—the ETAPPS of the Army in France
—he lost it. Here there was no escaping the everlasting khaki and
transport, that State of War into which he had been induced, and out
of which he could see no very great possibility of ever emerging. He
had no warning of what was to come, and was already well among
the hospitals and dumps that extended for miles beside the railway,
when a military policeman held up a warning hand.
“What’s the matter, Corporal?”
“I should not go into Etapps this morning, if I were you, sir.”
“Why not?”
The man shifted his glance. He did not like the job evidently.
“Funny goings-on, there, sir.”
“Goings-on, what does that mean?”
Dormer was capable of quite a good rasp of the throat, when
required. He had learned it as a Corporal.
“The men are out of ’and, sir!”
“Are they? The A.P.M. will see to that, I suppose.”
“Very good, sir.”
“Drive on!”
Dormer didn’t like it, to tell the truth. But he was so used to bluffing
things he didn’t like, and his own feelings, and other people’s
awkwardness, that he could not do otherwise than go on. Also he
didn’t realize what was on foot. A certain amount of daily work was
being done in among the dumps and sidings where the population
was of all sorts of non-combatant, Labour Corps units, medical
formations, railway people, and others. But from the rise by the
Reinforcement Officers’ hut, he began to see. The whole of the great
infantry camp on the sandhill—and it was very full, he had heard
people say that there were a hundred thousand men there—seemed
to have emptied itself into the little town. Here they sauntered and
talked, eddying a little round the station and some of the larger
estaminets, in motion like an ant-hill, in sound like a hive of bees.
The car was soon reduced to a walking pace, there were no police to
be seen, and once entered there was no hope of backing out of that
crowd, and no use in appearing to stop in it.
“Go slow,” Dormer ordered, glancing out of the corner of his eye at
the wooden face of the chauffeur. Nothing to be seen. Either the man
didn’t like it, or didn’t feel the necessary initiative to join in it, or
perhaps considered himself too superior to these foot-sloggers to
wish to be associated with them. Most probably he hadn’t digested
the fact that this mob, through which he drove his officer, was Mutiny,
the break-up of ordered force, and military cohesion. It might even
be the end of the War and victory for the Germans. All this was
apparent enough in a moment to Dormer, who was careful to look
straight again to his front, unwinking and mute, until, with a beating
heart, he saw that they were clear of the jam in the Market Place,
and well down the little street that led to the bridge across which
were the farther hospitals, and various sundry Base Offices, in the
former of which he was to find Andrews. Now, therefore, he did
permit himself to light a cigarette. But not a word did he say to his
chauffeur. Now that it was behind him he had the detachment to
reflect that it was a good-humoured crowd. He had heard a gibe or
so that might have been meant for him or no, but in the main, not
being hustled, all those tens of thousands that had broken camp,
chased the police off the streets, and committed what depredations
he did not know, were peaceful enough, much too numerous and
leaderless to make any cohesive threat to an isolated officer, not of
their own unit, and therefore not an object of any special hatred, any
more than of any special devotion, just a member of another class in
the hierarchy, uninteresting to simple minds, in which he caused no
immediate commotion.
Here, on the road that ran through the woods to Paris Plage, there
were little knots of men, strolling or lying on the grass. They became
fewer and fewer. By the time he arrived at the palace, mobilized as a
hospital, for which he was bound, there remained no sign of the
tumult. Here, as on the other flank, by the Boulogne road, Medical
and Base Units functioned unmoved. But the news had been brought
by Supply and Signal services and the effect of it was most curious.
Dormer had to pass through the official routine, had to be
announced, had to have search made for young Andrews, and finally
was conducted to a bed in Ward C., on which was indicated Captain
Andrews, R.G.A. Dormer of course wanted to begin at once upon his
mission, but the other, a curly-haired boy, whose tan had given place
to a patchy white under loss of blood from a nasty shrapnel wound in
the leg, that kept on turning septic, had to be “scraped” or “looked
at,” each of these meaning the operation table, and was only now
gradually healing, would not let him.
Once away from the theatre and the knife, Andrews, like any other
healthy youngster, soon accumulated any amount of animal spirit,
lying there in bed, adored by the nursing sisters, admired by the men
orderlies. He was not going to listen to Dormer’s serious questions.
He began:
“Cheerio! Sit on the next bed, there’s no corpse in it, they’ve just
taken it away. Anyhow, it isn’t catching. Have a cigarette, do for
God’s sake. They keep on giving me the darned things, and they all
end in smoke!”
“Sorry you got knocked out.”
“Only fair. Knocked out heaps of Fritzes. I gave ’em what for, and
they gave me some back. I say, have you just come from the town?”
“I have just motored through.”
“Is it true that our chaps have broke loose?”
“There’s a certain amount of disorder, but no violence that I could
see.”
Dormer was conscious of heads being popped up in all the
surrounding beds. So that was how it took them! Of course, they
were bored stiff.
“How topping. Is it true that they’ve killed all the red-caps?”
“I didn’t see any signs of it.”
“Cleared up the remains had they? Picked the bones, or fallen in
proper burying parties.”
“I don’t think there was anything of that sort.”
“Oh, come now, first we heard they had set on a police-corporal that
had shot a Jock.”
“What did he do that for?”
“Dunno. It isn’t the close season for Jocks, anyhow. Then it was ten
police-corporals. The last rumour was that they’d stoned the A.P.M.
to death——”
And so it went on. Lunch-time came. A Doctor Major, impressed by
Dormer’s credentials, invited him into the Mess, and asked a lot of
questions about the front, the offensive, and the state of Étaples.
Dormer always liked those medical messes. It seemed so much
more worth while to mend up people’s limbs, rather than to smash
them to bits. The Doctors had their professional “side” no doubt, but
they had a right to it.
After lunch Dormer made his way back to Ward C. He was met by a
hush, and by a little procession. The Sergeant-major came first and
after him bearers with a stretcher covered by the Union Jack. The
hush in the ward was ominous. They were all so close to what had
happened. It was not like the open field where the casualty is a
casualty and the living man a different thing. Here the dead were
only different in degree, not in kind. They were worse “cases”—the
worst, that was all. So there were no high spirits after lunch. They
had gibed about Death in the morning, but Death had come and they
had ceased to gibe. In the silence, Dormer felt awkward, did not
know how to begin. When he had made up his mind that he must, he
looked up and found Andrews was asleep. So the day wore on to
tea-time, and after tea he was not wanted in the ward, and was
wanted in the Mess. He himself was not hurrying to return to any
regularly bombed hut near Poperinghe. The Commanding Officer
was even more emphatic. Étaples was not safe. Dormer let it go at
that, and got a good game of bridge.
In the morning he found young Andrews as young as ever and got
down to his job at once:
“Do you remember joining 469 T.M.B.?”
“Yes, sh’d think I do.”
“Do you remember the man you had as servant while you were with
them?”
“I do. Topping feller. Gad, I was sorry when I had to leave him
behind. Of course, I dropped him when I went to hospital. Never was
so done!”
At last!
“You couldn’t give me his name and number, I suppose?”
“I must have got a note of it somewhere. I say, what’s all this about?
Do you want to get hold of him?”
“I do. He’s wanted, over a question of damage in billets. They’ve
sent me to find him out.”
“Then I’m damned if I’ll tell you. Because he was a topping chap!”
rejoined Andrews, laughing.
“You’d better tell me, I think. The matter has gone rather high up,
and it might be awkward if I had to report that the information was
refused.”
“Lord, you aren’t going to make a Court of Inquiry affair of it, are
you?”
“It may come to that, and they’ve got hold of your name.”
“Gee whizz! I don’t like landing the chap. I may not have got any
particulars of him, now, my things have been so messed about.”
“Well, look and see!”
“All right.”
Andrews fumbled out from the night-table beside his bed, the usual
bedside collection. Letters in female handwriting, some young, some
old—from one or more sweethearts and a mother, thought Dormer.
Paper-covered novels. The sort (English) that didn’t make you think.
The sort (French) that make you feel, if you were clever at the
language. Cigarettes, bills. One or two letters from brother officers.
“Blast. It’s in my Field Note Book, in my valise, in store here. I shall
have to send to have it got out. Wait half a mo’ and I’ll get an
orderly.”
As they waited, he went on:
“What’s he wanted for? Some dam’ Frenchman going to crime him
for stealing hop-poles?”
“Something of that sort. You wouldn’t remember it, it happened
before you joined the Battery.”
“Then it jolly well wasn’t my man Watson. He’d only just come up
from Base!”
“Come, the man was of middle size and ordinary to look at, and had
been servant to an officer of the name of Fairfield, who was killed!”
“Oh, that chap. I know who you mean now. I don’t call him my
servant. I only had him for a day or two. His name was Smith, as far
as I can recollect. We were in the line, and I never got his number.
He disappeared, may have been wounded, or gone sick of course,
we were strafed to Hell, as usual. I should have got rid of him in any
case. He was a grouser!”
“Didn’t like the War?”
“I should say not.”
Hopeless, of course. When Andrews saw Dormer rise and close his
notebook, he apologized:
“Beastly sorry. Afraid I’m no good.”
“That’s all right. I don’t want to find the fellow, personally. It’s simply
my job.”
“Fair wear and tear, so to speak?”
“Yes. Good morning.”
“Don’t go—I say, don’t. You’re just getting interesting!” Heads
popped up in the surrounding beds. “Do tell us what it’s all about.”
“Merely a matter of damage in billets as I said.”
“Go on. There’s always damage in billets. You must ha’ done heaps,
haven’t you? I have. There’s something more in it than that.”
“Well, there is. Perhaps it will be a lesson to you not to go too far
with other people’s property.”
“I say, don’t get stuffy. What did the feller do?”
“He broke into a shrine.”
“I say, that’s a bit thick.”
“It was!”
“What did he do it for? Firewood?”
“No. He wanted to shelter a couple of mules!”
“Good man. Don’t blame him!”
“No!”
“But they can’t crime him for a thing like that?”
“They will if they can catch him.”
“Go on!”
“It didn’t stop at that.” Once more it seemed to Dormer that a good
lesson might do no harm to the light-headed youth that Andrews
represented, and several of whom were listening, anxiously from that
corner of the ward.
“Did G.H.Q. take it up?”
“Yes. They had to. The Mayor of the village came to make an official
inquiry and the Battery made fun of him.”
“Lumme! I bet they did!”
“They should not have done so. That made the French authorities
take it up. Goodness knows where it will end!”
“End in our fighting the French,” said some one.
Dormer felt that it was high time to put his foot down. “You may be
privileged to talk like that while you’re in hospital. But I don’t
recommend you to do so outside. You ought to have the sense to
know that we don’t want to fight anyone, we most certainly don’t
want to fight some one else after Germans. In any case, we don’t
want to do the fighting in England!”
There was a dead silence after he had spoken, and he rose, feeling
that he had impressed them. He stumped out of the ward without
another word, went to the Mess, rang and demanded his car. The
Orderly Officer would have liked to detain him, insisted on the
possible state of Étaples, but he would not hear of it. In those few
hours he had had enough and more than enough of the Base—the
place where people talked while others Did—the place where the
pulse of the War beat so feebly. He felt he would go mad if he stayed
there, without sufficient occupation for his mind. His car appeared
and he soon left the palace and the birchwoods and was rattling over
the bridge into Étaples. “Now for it!” he thought. But no policeman
warned him off this time. He soon saw why. The streets had resumed
their normal appearance. He might have known. That fancy of his,
about the Headless Man, came back to him with its true meaning.
What could they do, all those “Other Ranks,” as they were
designated? Just meander about, fight the police, perhaps. But they
had no organization, no means of rationing or transport. Of course,
they had had to go back to their respective camps with their tails
between their legs in order to get fed.
There was nothing to show for the whole business but a few panes
of broken glass and some splintered palings. By the time he got to
St. Omer and stopped for lunch, no one seemed to have heard of it.
By tea-time, he was back at Divisional H.Q. And none too soon. A
fresh attack was to be made the following day. He went straight up to
the canal bank, where Kavanagh was as busy as ever, and dropped
into his work where he had left it. There was just the same thing to
do, only more of it. A desperate race against time was going on. It
was evident enough that this most enormously costly of all
offensives must get through before November finally rendered
fighting impossible. There was still some faint chance of a week or
two of fair weather in October. Fresh Corps were massed and flung
into the struggle. Engineers, Labour Corps, anyone who could throw
a bomb or fire a rifle must do so. What had been roads of stone
pavé, had been so blown about with shell-fire that they were a
honeycomb of gaping holes, repaired with planks. More and more
searching were the barrages, denser the air fighting. Progress there
undoubtedly was, but progress enough?
Through the sleepless nights and desperate days that followed,
Dormer’s feelings toward Kavanagh were considerably modified. The
fellow still talked, but Dormer was less sorry to hear him. He even
recited, and Dormer got into the way of listening. They were now in
an “Elephant” hut. No dug-out was possible in that sector, where
eighteen inches below the surface you came to water. No tent could
be set, even had they wished for one. Their frail house was covered
with sandbags, of a sufficient thickness to keep off shrapnel, and
presumably they were too insignificant to be the object of a direct hit,
but in order to leave nothing to chance they had had the place
covered with camouflage netting. Outside lay mile after mile of
water-logged runnels that had been trenches, on the smashed and
slippery parapets of which one staggered to some bit of roadway that
was kept in repair at gigantic cost in lives and materials, guided by
the lines of wire that either side had put up with such difficulty, and
which were all now entirely useless, a mere hindrance to free
movement. But they were “in” for a long spell, and could not get
away—did not want to, they were less bombed here than farther
back. Rations reached them, that was as much as they had time to
care about. Otherwise, the night was well filled for the one with
counting off the parties that filed past into this or that attack, for the
other in picking up those signal lines that had been smashed by
shell-fire during the day, and replacing them.
As that endless procession went past him once more, Dormer felt
that he now knew of what its component parts were thinking.
Australians, Canadians, Welsh, Scotch, Irish, English, they were
thinking of nothing in particular. Like the mules that went with them,
they went on because they couldn’t stop. Food and sleep each day
was the goal. To stop would mean less food and sleep, mules and
men knew that much, without use of the reasoning faculty. It had
become an instinct. All the brilliant casuistry that had induced men to
enlist was forgotten, useless, superseded. Even English soldiers
were conscripts now, the War had won, had overcome any and every
rival consideration, had made itself paramount, had become the end
and the means as well.
A man like Dormer, accustomed to an ordered and reasoned
existence, who could have explained his every act up to August,
1914, by some good and solid reason, was as helpless as any. Stop
the War? You wanted to go back half a century and alter all the
political and business cliques in which it had been hatching. To alter
those you wanted to be able to alter the whole structure of society in
European countries, which kept those cliques in power, was obliged
to have recourse to them, to get itself governed and financed. To do
that you wanted to change Human Nature. Here Dormer’s
imagination stopped dead. He was no revolutionary. No one was
farther than he from being one. He only hated Waste. He had been
brought up and trained to business, in an atmosphere of methodical
neatness, of carefully foreseen and forestalled risks. Rather than
have recourse to revolution he would go on fighting the Bosche. It
was so much more real.
Somewhere about the point at which he reached this conclusion, he
heard, among the noise of the sporadic bombardment, Kavanagh’s
voice:
“‘Now that we’ve pledged each eye of blue
And every maiden fair and true,
And our green Island Home, to you
The Ocean’s wave adorning,
Let’s give one hip, hip, hip hurrah!
And drink e’en to the coming day,
When squadron, square,
We’ll all be there,
To meet the French in the morning!’
That’s the stuff to give the troops, Dormer!”
But Dormer, although cheered, was not going to admit it. “You’d
better go and sing it to the Seventy-Worst. They go in at dawn!”
“Good luck to them. Listen to this:
“‘May his bright laurels never fade
Who leads our fighting Fifth Brigade,
These lads so true in heart and blade,
And famed for danger scorning;
So join me in one hip hurrah!
And drink e’en to the coming day,
When squadron, square,
We’ll all be there,
To meet the French in the morning!’
How’s that for local colour. Is there a Fifth Brigade in to-morrow’s
show? They’d like that.”
“I bet they wouldn’t. Anyhow, it’s silly to repeat things against the
French.”
“Man, it’s a hundred years old.”
“Like my uncle’s brandy.”
“You and your uncle!”
“I had an uncle once who had some brandy. It was called ‘Napoleon,’
and was supposed to date from 1815. When he opened it, it was
gone!”
“There you are. That’s your materialism. But you can sing a song a
hundred years old and find it’s not gone!”
“It’s not a bad song. Only silly!”
“Well, try something older:
“‘We be
Soldiers three,
Lately come from the Low-Countree,
Pardonnez moi, je vous en prie;
We be
Soldiers three.’
That’s nearer three hundred years old. That’s what fellows used to
sing coming back from Ypres in those days!”
“You talk as if we’d always been in and out of that mangey hole.”
They both leaned on their elbows and gazed out of the tiny aperture,
under the sacking, away over the sea-like ridges of pulverized mud,
into the autumn evening. Between the rain-clouds, torn and
shredded as if by the shell-fire, watery gleams were pouring, as
though the heavens were wounded and bled. They spilled all over
the jagged stonework of that little old medieval walled town, compact
within its ramparts, for the third time in its history garrisoned by an
English army. Kavanagh told him of it, but Dormer remained
unimpressed. The history of the world that mattered began after the
battle of Waterloo, with Commerce and Banking, Railway and
Telegraph, the Education and Ballot Acts. Previous events were all
very well, as scenery for Shakespeare’s plays or Wagner’s Operas.
But otherwise, negligible. Yet the interlude did him good. He felt he
had brought Kavanagh up short, in an argument, and he went to his
night’s work with a lighter heart, and a strengthened confidence in
himself.
Of course, a few weeks later, the offensive was over, with the results
he had foreseen, and with another result he was also not alone in
foreseeing. Once back in rest, near Watten, he heard people talking
in this strain, in G. office:
“I suppose, sir, we shall go on fighting next year?”
“Um—I suppose we shall. But perhaps some arrangement may be
come to, first. There’s been a good deal of talk about Peace!”
That was the mood of Divisional Head-quarters. A growing
scepticism as to the continuance of the War. At the moment, Dormer
missed the motive at the back of it. Away from H.Q. while the
Division was in action, he had lost a good deal of ominous news.
The talk about the transference of German Divisions from one front
to another was old talk. He had heard it for years. He did not at the
moment grasp that it had now a new significance. Then something
happened that put everything else out of his head. He was not
feeling too well, though he had nothing to complain of worse than the
usual effects of damp and loss of sleep. Colonel Birchin had got
himself transferred to a better appointment, and his place was taken
by a much younger officer, glad to take it as a “step” up from a
dangerous and difficult staff-captaincy. They had been out at rest
less than a week and Dormer had assumed as a matter of course
that he would be put in charge of organized sports for the winter, as
usual. But he was only just becoming sensible of the change that
had come over H.Q. Colonel Birchin used to have a certain pre-War
regular soldier’s stiffness and want of imagination (which Dormer
had privately deplored), but he had kept the Q. office well in hand.
This new man, Vinyolles, very amicable and pleasant, and much
nearer to Dormer’s new army view of the War (he was in fact
younger than Dormer, and than most of the clerical N.C.O.’s in the
office), had nothing like the standoff power of his predecessor. Also,
the office, like everything else, had grown, half a dozen odd-job
officers were now attached, and without wearing red, sat and worked
with Dormer. So that when Dormer went to show his Football
Competition Time Table and his schedule for use of the Boxing
Stadium, he found that he had to explain how these things were
usually done. Colonel Vinyolles had no idea. Dormer ought to have
been warned. But his head was not working at its very best. He had
a temperature, he thought, and wanted to go and lie down at his
billet for a bit and take some aconite, a remedy he had carried with
him throughout the War. Colonel Vinyolles was quite nice about the
Sports, and just as Dormer was turning to go, said to him:
“Perhaps you can help me in this matter. I see your name occurs in
the correspondence!”
Of course, he might have known. It was the familiar dossier, as the
French called it, the sheaf of papers, clipped together, at the bottom
the original blue Questionnaire form that old Jerome Vanderlynden
had signed. At the top a fresh layer of official correspondence,
“Passed to you please, for necessary action.” “This does not appear
to concern this office.” “Kindly refer to A.Q.M.G.’s minute dated July
1916.” And so on. Dormer knew quite a lot of it by heart and the
remainder he could have “reconstructed” with no difficulty. The only
fresh thing that had happened was a minute from the new chief of
the French Mission enclosing a cutting from a newspaper—a French
newspaper of all conceivable rags—from which it appeared that
some deputy or other had “interpellated” a minister about the matter,
asked a question in the “House” would be the English of it, Dormer
supposed.
“What am I to tell the Mission?” Colonel Vinyolles was asking.
Dormer was not a violent man by habit, but he felt that he was
getting to his limit with this affair. He thought a moment, wanting to
say: “Tell them to go to the Devil!” but held it in reserve, and
substituted: “Tell them the matter has attention!”
“Thanks very much!”
Dormer went and rested.
The following day he felt no better and did not do much. He had the
Sports well in hand, and there was no movement of troops. The day
following that he felt queerer than ever, and jibbed at his breakfast.
He went along to see the D.A.D.M.S., always a friend of his, who put
a thermometer under his tongue, looked at it, shook it, looked at
Dormer, gave him an aspirin, and advised him to go and lie down for
a bit. On his way to his billet Dormer put his head into Q. office to tell
the Sergeant-major where he was to be found if wanted. He was
called by Colonel Vinyolles from the farther room. It was again full of
people he considered (as rank counted for less than experience) to
be his juniors. He could see something was “up.” They were all
highly amused except Vinyolles.
“I say, Dormer, I consider you let me down on this.”
“What’s the trouble?”
“Trouble! I’ve got a nice chit back, in reply to my saying ‘the matter
has attention.’ They say that any further delay is ‘inadmissible’ and
that they will be obliged to carry the matter higher.”
“Let ’em!”
“Oh, that won’t do at all. The General has seen this, and he wants to
know what you mean by it.”
“He ought to know by this time!”
“Captain Dormer!”
Of course he was wrong, but he felt rotten. It wasn’t Vinyolles’ fault.
He pulled himself together.
“Sorry, sir. I mean that the case has been going on for nearly two
years, and has certainly not been neglected. I think every one who
counts is familiar with it.”
He meant it for a snub for some of those chaps who were sitting
there grinning. He saw his mistake in a moment. Vinyolles was as
new as any of them, and naturally replied: “I’m afraid I have no
knowledge of it. Perhaps you will enlighten me?”
“It must have been June, 1916, when we first received the claim. The
late A.P.M., Major Stevenage, took it up as a matter of discipline, but
on investigation considered that it was rather a case for
compensation, as damage in billets. The French Mission insisted
that an arrest must be made, and I have made every possible effort
to trace the soldier responsible. But formations change so quickly,
during offensives especially, that it is impossible.”
“I see. What exactly did he do, to cause such a rumpus?”
At the prospect of having to retell the whole story, Dormer got an
impression that something was after him, exactly like the feeling of
trying to get cover in a barrage, and wondering which moment would
be the last. He put his hand to his head and found some one had
pushed a chair against his knees. He sat down vaguely conscious of
the D.A.D.M.S. standing near by.
“An officer of 469 T.M.B. was wounded and his servant was given
two mules, sick or wounded, to lead. He got to the billet mentioned
and seems to have taken a dislike to the horse-lines. He found one
of those little memorial chapels that you often see, in the corner of
the pasture, and knocked in the front of it to shelter the beasts. The
farmer didn’t like it and sent for the Mayor to make a procès-verbal.
By the time the Mayor got there, the Battery was on the move again.
It was about the time of one of those awkward little shows the
Bosche put up to contain us during Verdun. The Battery had been
badly knocked about, and the men were excited and made some
sort of a scene! The Mayor told his Deputy and his Deputy told some
one at French G.H.Q. It all keeps going round in my head. I don’t
want to find the chap who did it. He’s no worse than you or I. He was
just making the best of the War, and I don’t blame him. I blame it.
You might as well crime the whole British Army.”
What had he said? He fancied he had given the facts concisely, but
was not sure of himself, his head felt so funny, and he was aware
that people—he could no longer be sure who they were—Q. office
seemed crowded—were tittering!—Some one else was talking now,
but he was not interested. He rested his head on his hand and heard
Vinyolles: “Well, Dormer, you go along to your billet, and we’ll see
what can be done!”
He got up and walked out. The D.A.D.M.S. was at his elbow, saying
to him:
“Get into this ambulance, I’ll run you across!” but he never got to his
billet. He got into a train. He did not take much notice, but refused
the stuff they wanted him to eat. After that he must have gone to
sleep, but woke up, under a starlit sky, with an unmistakable smell of
the sea. They were lifting him under a canvas roof. Now, from the
motion, he perceived he was at sea, but it did not seem greatly to
matter. He was out of it, he had cut the whole disgusting show. He
had done his bit, now let some one else take a turn.

Dormer had not been home on leave since early spring, and the
leave that he got for convalescence gave him not only some idea of
the vast changes going on in England, while he, in France, had been
engaged in the same old War, but a notion of changes that had gone
on in that old War without his having perceived them. He was let
loose from Hospital just before Christmas, at that unfortunate period
when the public at home were still feeling the reaction from the Bell-
ringing of Cambrai, were just learning the lengths to which the
collapse of Russia had gone and were to be confronted with the
probable repercussion of that collapse upon the prospects of the
campaign in the West. There was no escaping these conclusions
because his own home circumstances had so changed as to throw
him back completely on himself. His father having died while he was
in France, his mother had taken a post under one of the semi-official
War organizations that abounded. The old home in which he had
grown up had been dispersed, and he found his only near relative in
his native town was his sister, a teacher by profession, who had
moved the remnants of the old furniture and his and her own small
belongings to a new house in one of the high, healthy suburbs that
surrounded the old town. She was, however, busy all day, and he fell
into the habit, so natural to anyone who has lived in a Mess for
years, of dropping in at one of the better-class bars, before lunch, for
an apéritif, and a glance at the papers. Here he would also pickup
some one for a round of golf, which would keep him employed until
tea-time, for he could not rid himself of the War-time habit of looking
upon each day as something to be got through somehow, in the
hopes that the morrow might be better.
These ante-prandial excursions were by far the closest contact he
had had with anything like a normal, representative selection of his
fellow-countrymen, since they and he had become so vitally altered
from the easy-going, sport-loving England of pre-War, and he had to
readjust his conception considerably. He soon grasped that there
was a lot of money being made, and a lot of khaki being worn as a
cover for that process. There was plenty of energy, a good deal of
fairly stubborn intention to go on and win, but a clear enough
understanding that the War was not going to be won in the trenches.
And when he had got over some little spite at this, his level habit of
mind obliged him to confess that there was a good deal in it. There
were many signs that those who held that view were right.
Sipping his drink, smoking and keeping his nose carefully in his
newspaper, in those bars lighted by electric light, in the middle of the
dark Christmas days, he listened and reflected. The offensives he
had seen? How had they all ended? How did he say himself they
always must end? Exactly as these chaps had made up their minds!
Would he not see if there did not remain some relative who could get
him one of these jobs at home, connected with supplying some one
else with munitions? No, he would not. He understood and agreed
with the point of view, but some very old loyalty in him would keep
him in France, close up to the guns, that was the place for him. He
had no illusions as to that to which he was returning. He knew that
he had never been appointed to Divisional Staff, had merely been
attached. There was no “establishment” for him, and directly he had
been sent down as sick, his place had been filled, some one else
was doing “head housemaid” as he had been called, to young
Vinyolles, and he, Dormer, would go shortly to the depôt of his
regiment, from thence to reinforcement camp, and thus would be
posted to any odd battalion that happened to want him. The prospect
did not worry him so much as might have been supposed. He felt
himself pretty adept at wangling his way along, and scrounging what
he wanted, having had a fine first-hand experience of how the
machinery worked. He did not want to go into the next offensive, it
was true, but neither did he want the sort of job he had had, and
even less did he want to be at Base, or in England. Boredom he
feared almost as much as physical danger. Accustomed to having
his day well filled, if he must go to War he wanted to be doing
something, not nothing, which was apparently a soldier’s usual
occupation. But he did not feel his participation in the next offensive
very imminent. He had heard them all talking about “Not fighting any
more,” and now here was Russia out of it and America not yet in,
and Peace might be patched up.
The most striking thing therefore that he learned was this new idea
of the Bosche taking the initiative, and attacking again. A new army
officer, his knowledge of the Western Front dated from Loos, and
was of allied offensives only. He had never seen the earlier battles of
Ypres, the retreat from Mons was just so much history to him. When
he heard heated arguments as to which particular point the Bosche
would select for their offensive, in France, or (so nervous were these
people at home) in England even, he was astonished, and then
incredulous. The level balance of his mind saved him. He had no
superfluous imagination. He had never seen a German offensive,
didn’t want to, and therefore didn’t think he would. As usual, the bar-
parlour oracles knew all about it, gave chapter and verse, could tick
off on their fingers how many German Divisions could be spared
from the Eastern Front. He had heard it all before. He remembered
how nearly the cavalry got through after Vimy, how Moorslede Ridge
was to give us command of the country up to Courtrai, how Palestine
or Mespot were to open an offensive right in the Bosche rear, not to
mention all the things these Russians had always been said to be
going to do. This might be another of what the French so well called
“Canards”—Wild Ducks. He would wait and see.
He was impressed in a different way by the accounts that now began
to filter through, of what had been happening in Russia. Officers
shot, and regiments giving their own views on the campaign. That
was what happened when the Headless Man got loose! No doubt the
Russians, from all he had heard, had suffered most, so far as
individual human suffering went. And then, Russians were, to him,
one of these over-brainy people. Had anyone acquainted with his
ruminations taxed him to say if English people were under-brainy, he
would have said no, not necessarily, but brainy in a different way.
Left to himself he felt that all the opinions he had ever formed of the
Russians were justified. Look at their Music. Some of it was pretty
good, he admitted, but it was—awkward—beyond the reach of
amateurs, in the main. This appeared to him, quite sincerely, to be a

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