Clinical Reasoning About Timely Euthanasia of Compromised Pigs

In traditional livestock care, veterinarians often face situations where they have to determine the optimal time for euthanasia to prevent unnecessary suffering and pain. To improve timely euthanasia, this article focuses on the process of decision-making from a clinical reasoning perspective. The analysis aimed to identify typical steps of reasoning and explore the interdependencies between reported symptoms. For this means, decision-making reports from an online survey and in-depth interviews were assessed by an exploratory, sequential mixed-method content analysis. A key component of the approach involved generating a network analysis in Gephi to visualize the central symptoms associated with reasoning about euthanasia. The results also present a seven-step model of reasoning that can be used to innovate training concepts. Beyond practical applications, the findings have implications for theoretical considerations. Notably, the results suggest that euthanasia is more accurately conceptualized as a "script" rather than a simple "action", highlighting the need for further exploration from the perspective of cognitive psychology.