Improving communication to enhance teamwork in practice

Improving communication in the veterinary industry among vets and nurses is key to enhancing patient care, employee well-being, and improving hospital workflow. Veterinary clinics provide a variety of services that are dependent on teamwork, therefore succeeding in the industry with communication can provide practices with a competitive advantage in customer service and patient care.

Webster’s Dictionary defines communication as “the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs.” It is important that employees have an understanding that communication comes in many forms and in the veterinary industry collaboration is a prominent requirement, so effective communication is key for the success of a practice.

Here are 5 tips to enhance communication amongst teams in veterinary practice!

Tip 1: Create shared goals and values

To improve stress and ensure employees are on the same page about tasks and duties means understanding the roadblocks that occur during communication throughout practice! There are several factors that come into play between vets, nurses, and staff due to the lack of refined knowledge or experience between each other's professions (Flicek, 2012) or differences in training backgrounds (Gartley, 2022). 

Here are 5 steps to take to improve communication among them: 

1. Organise team meetings: Weekly team meetings with key practice employees to ensure common understandings and enforce opportunities for clarification before the week begins 
2. Focus on inclusivity and team building: Rather than using words like “yours” or “mine” simply use pronouns such as “ours” or “we” to create a team or partnership environment 
3. Improve organization culture: Focus on the importance of building a supportive workforce to enhance well-being, while creating an open-door policy that motivates the employees to avoid blame and negativity. Where errors are perceived as a failure rather, foster an educative or more collaborative environment.
4. ​​Adapt communication strategies: Based on team members’ experience level, sometimes more time will have to be spent explaining a certain task or a new nurse may need more time than existing members to clearly understand. Your clinic can use Vetcheck charts as a guide for clinical staff - new grads, locums new starters. Digital charts have a template option where you can remind staff of steps and protocols that are condition specific. It promotes adherence to the clinic’s standard protocols, easy to update and adapt. 
5. Patient rounds: This is an excellent practice protocol. Patient rounds can be short, once or twice a day, and should include vets and nurses. This will not only improve team dynamics but communication can be improved by an observer or different team member giving feedback on the educational experience.

Tip 2: Implementing communication strategies  internally 

Having a system or software used within the clinic can be very helpful as miscommunication often occurs and are the root cause of medical errors and inconsistency. Writing something as important as a script sometimes causes issues during patient and nurse clarification due to the need to decode messy handwriting or lack of information. IPASS is a patient handoff system utilized in many clinics to prevent medical errors and increase patient care. This system if implemented correctly can also aid during patient rounds to provide a better learning experience and include a written form of communication.  

The IPASS system stands for the following:

I - Illness severity

P - patient summary

A - action list

S - situation awareness and contingency plans

S - synthesis by the receiver

Research by Blazin et al, 2020 shows when nurses implemented the IPASS system in human healthcare there was a decrease in inpatient nurses' handoff errors and an overall general agreement of handoff improvement. The IPASS program is a good way to ensure that nurses and vets involved in patient care make informed decisions aligned with shared goals, therefore evidently showing good solutions for vet medicine.

Tip 3: Engaging in different forms of communication

As mentioned clinical staff, vets, nurses, and caregivers all come from different educational and experiential backgrounds. The following 5 forms of communication are examples that could be implemented in practice to ensure smooth communication for all individuals. 

1. Visual - try implementing the use of digital charts, facts, data, diagrams
2. Written communication - Instruction sheets, step-by-step actions
3. Verbal - Verbally go through the patient charts during rounds
4. Non-verbal - Body language throughout practice may indicate whether you are happy about an employee's work, eye contact could be as strong as indicating whether you are being present and try hand gestures for busy times.
5. Listening - practice active listening, be present, ask questions for individuals who are listeners, clarify expressions 

Tip 4: Utilise advancements in Technology

As experienced vets and nurses, we know how busy the workload can get throughout the day. Many industries were heavily impacted by COVID-19 and therefore saw the difference technology brings to an organization. More progressive practices today have understood the power of technology in aiding organizational communication towards both clients and employees. Latest advances in veterinary technology have led to the adoption of practice management systems that integrate with software companies like VetCheck.

2 Key tools to help communication in your practice offered by VetCheck:

• Digital whiteboards and nurse care plans: You can enhance communication in your practice by utilizing VetCheck tools such as digital whiteboards which help employees practice task management and enable all team members to easily access patient files from any tablet or computer so everyone knows what going on at all times!

• Electronic prescription tool: The Vetcheck EP tool is an easy way to ensure record-keeping throughout your practice and go paperless! No more do clinic staff, receptionists, or caregivers need to struggle to decode messy handwriting or search for client prescription records. Such demanding tasks now with the help of VetCheck’s EP ease not only time constraints but make communication asynchronous in nature and ensured nurses, vets, and reception staff are all able to access client records.

Tip 5: Prepare ahead of time 

You may have discovered how important it is to get ahead of the post-holiday rush and new year appointments due to procrastination of appointment bookings towards the end of a  year. If your clinic like many other clinics across Australia is suffering from staff shortage, to reduce communication-related issues amongst staff plan ahead. 

• VetCheck tools such as consent forms and questionnaires can be emailed to the client ahead of their visit, reducing time spent by staff completing paperwork with or for clients.
•  Certificates can also be prepared ahead of time - vaccination, desexing, fit to fly etc, allowing effective collaboration between the veterinary surgeon and support staff to save time in consults.

Such tools boost team collaboration and have everyone working together towards a common goal. In such a way, the non-clinical staff is also able to help out where they can and receptionists are able to make employees aware of what is ahead for the day. 

Communication takes time!

Nurse-to-veterinarian collaboration, but also clinical staff and caregivers play a crucial importance in contributing to patient and organizational outcomes. Therefore, working on improving communication can in fact improve patient satisfaction as they might view staff just as competent and help nurses feel more confident in undergoing day-to-day tasks.

If you want to learn more about VetCheck’s digital tools click here.

References:

Flicek CL. Communication: a dynamic between nurses and physicians. Medsurg Nurs. 2012 Nov-Dec;21(6):385-7. PMID: 23477034.

Gartley, C. E. (2022, August 23). Promote effective nurse-physician communication. American Nurse. https://www.myamericannurse.com/promote-effective-nurse-physician-communication/

Blazin LJ, Sitthi-Amorn J, Hoffman JM, Burlison JD. Improving Patient Handoffs and Transitions through Adaptation and Implementation of I-PASS Across Multiple Handoff Settings. Pediatr Qual Saf. 2020 Jul 23;5(4):e323. doi: 10.1097/pq9.0000000000000323. PMID: 32766496; PMCID: PMC7382547.