Ethics: We’ve Always Done it this Way

By Caitlin O’Shea, DVM, MS, DACVS-LA, CVA

Just because we’ve always done something “that way” doesn’t mean it is current best practice—knowledge expands, techniques improve, theories fail and times change. The last paragraph of the oath we took when graduating from veterinary school pledges that we will “accept as a lifelong obligation the continual improvement of my [our] professional knowledge and competence” (AVMA, revised 2010).