Communication is the Key, but What if We Don’t Have Good Communication?

Introduction: 

Veterinary communication refers to the communication between vets and clients, and also within vet teams. Good veterinary communication is a crucial contributor to providing the best care for animal patients. Patients cannot express their discomfort verbally, thus veterinarian teams and clients must establish a rapport relationship, and collaborate to discuss and provide the most suitable treatment for them. 

While veterinarians use their professional knowledge to make diagnoses and administer treatment plans, clients provide patients’ health information for vets’ diagnoses and are responsible for daily care during patients’ recovery. With proper communication, veterinary practice can be operated smoothly, minimizing medical accidents and preventing any delayed treatments. 

Communication Problems Within the Veterinary Practice

According to Russell et.al 2021 veterinary communication research,  communication problems are not rare, appearing in 80% of the cases analyzed. 

Communication issues can arise between clients and veterinarians, and also between the vet teams. Ineffective communication can reduce trust and collaboration, which can ultimately result in delayed treatment and affect the recovery progress of the patients, which can potentially harm or even cause patients’ deaths. Therefore solving communication problems is one of the major tasks to be done to improve veterinary service.

Common Communication Problems: 

Here are 6 common communication problems that exist within the veterinary practice: 

1. Client confusion

Clients might not receive all the important details delivered by the vets, especially when vets are distracted trying to restrain and comfort patients’ stress during the visit. The veterinarian might also inadvertently misconvey patients’ conditions. In some cases, clients might be misled by online information that conflicts with the veterinarians’ medical advice. This will lead to clients not being confident in fully understanding the true condition of their pet and decrease trust in vets.  

2. Veterinary Technical Language

Veterinarians might use technical or medical terms about patients’ conditions without explanations, or the content (written, verbal, video, recording etc.) used to convey the information might not be suitable for the clients. This results in the clients having confusion about what the veterinarians say and thus impacts clients’ adherence to the medical advice.

3. Veterinary Teams Not Being on The Same Page

Communication problems can also exist within veterinary teams. These may happen when the communication is indirect and easily leads to misunderstandings during job handover, or when the working environment/ culture discourages good communication between staff members. Among the veterinary teams, communication errors mainly arise between veterinarians and receptionists. Insufficient message exchange will result in personnel lacking a full understanding of their duties within the workplace and not being able to fully participate in the team, which can greatly affect clinics’ regular operations. 

4. Time Constraints

A typical veterinary consultation lasts about 24 minutes, and the time may not be enough for the vets to explain to the clients every aspect of the patient’s conditions, treatment plans, and risks. Without sufficient discussion between veterinarians and clients, this may result in clients being unable to fully understand the conditions of their pets. To fully understand their pet’s conditions, clients might do online research, but this will increase the risk of clients receiving invalid health information.

5. Lack of Accessibility to Vet

Lack of accessibility to the vet can seriously hinder communication. According to The Veterinarian Employment Survey, among 510 respondents, 58 % of the veterinary staff need to work overtime, with understaffing and veterinary emergencies being the primary causes. This means that vet staff are busy with their work and may not provide enough opportunities for client discussions. Other possible causes include clients having transportation and financial barriers, which they cannot bring patients access to the vet clinics to receive following check-ups promptly.

6. Client’s Level of Acceptance of Medical Advice

Pets are considered as important family members of the clients, and clients may become too emotional when hearing that their pets are suffering from illnesses. Being emotional can result in a denied attitude, a lack of trust in vets and a refusal to follow medical advice, all of which can negatively impact patients’ treatment and recovery. Other factors lowering clients’ level of acceptance include clients' closed minds on perceiving certain medical treatments and medications, clients do not receive good attitudes from the vets and their voices not being heard.

Improving Veterinary Communication

Improving and minimizing veterinary communication problems can enhance patients’ medical history-taking quality, and promote trust and discussion between vets and clients, which consequently leads to more comprehensive care plans and medical recommendations for the patients. 

There are three aspects that improvement can be made to lessen communication issues:

Education:  

According to the questionnaire conducted by McDermott et.al. 2015, among 1,774 of participating vets, 98% agreed that the importance of communication skills should be the same as clinical knowledge. By emphasizing veterinary communication training and promoting the integration of communication education into the current training curriculum, veterinarians can be more equipped and confident with making explanations and interacting with clients, and communicating better with vet team members. 

Increase Clients’ Adherence to Medical Advice: 

Clients' level of health literacy can be developed by simplifying technical or medical terms when vets explain patients’ conditions, and by educating clients to identify and research reliable online veterinary information to avoid clients' confusion. Vet teams can also make good use of non-verbal communication, such as good eye contact and taking time to understand their needs, which help to show empathy and allow clients to feel that their concerns are being heard. These actions can help to stabilize clients’ emotions and build trust between vets and clients. Adequate time for discussion should also be provided to ensure clients fully understand the message delivered by veterinarians.

Team Collaboration: 

Communication within the team can be fostered by holding effective team meetings, setting clear norms and expectations, and having clear job distributions. Any issues that exist during daily practice should be discussed and solved in a timely manner. Additionally, team members should be encouraged to communicate more in daily clinical practice, especially during job handover between staff to avoid making assumptions.

Further reading: 

Ballantyne K C, and Buller K. 2015.  Experiences of veterinarians in clinical behavior practice: A mixed-methods study. J Vet Behav. 10(5):376-383. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S155878781500060X

Jackson, L D. 1992. Information complexity and medical communication: The effects of technical language and amount of information in a medical message. Health Commun. 4(3):197-210. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1207/s15327027hc0403_3?needAccess=true

McDermott M P, Tischler V A, Cobb M A, Robbé I J and Dean R S. 2015.  Veterinarian–client communication skills: current state, relevance, and opportunities for improvement. J Vet Med Educ. 42(4): 305-314. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26315212/

Professional Scientists Austalia. 2022. Veterinarian Employment Survey Report 2022. Pro Sci Aus. Available at: https://scientists.professionalsaustralia.org.au/PA/Latest_News/Veterinarian_Employment_Report_2022.aspx

Pun J K H.2020. An integrated review of the role of communication in veterinary clinical practice. BMC Vet Res.16(394):1-14. Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12917-020-02558-2#citeas

Russell E, Mossop L, Forbes E, and Oxtoby C. 2022. Uncovering the ‘messy details’ of veterinary communication: An analysis of communication problems in cases of alleged professional negligence. Vet Rec. 190(3):1-11. Available at: https://bvajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/vetr.1068

Smith S M, George Z, Duncan C G, & Frey D M. 2022. Opportunities for expanding access to veterinary care: Lessons from COVID-19. Front in Vet Sci. 9(804794).  Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2022.804794/full