Evaluating veterinary practitioner perceptions of communication skills and training

Abstract

Response rates and demographics 8A total of 1,190/3000 responses were received from the UK (39.7% 9 response rate), and 584/3000 responses were received from the US 10 (19.5% response rate). The overall response rate was 29.6% 11(1,774/6000). Mix of respondents was 57.3% female (1,013/1,768) and 12 42.7% male (755/1,768), with similar gender mix in the UK and US. 13Range in age was 23 years to 79 years (median age 41 years), with a 14 higher median age in the US (47 years) than in the UK (37 years). 15 Themes and subthemes 16The themes identified from the free text responses and reported in this 17 study were: 1) Room for improvement, 2) Why the lack of interest in 18 further training? and 3) Implications for communication training. These 19 and emergent subthemes are presented in Figure 1, and details are 20 presented below. Two additional themes were identified around the 21 importance of communication skills and the hallmarks of effective 22 7 communication but they were not included in this study. They concurred 1 with a wealth of previous research but they did not add any significant 2 new insights. Nevertheless, the fact that our respondents supported the 3 importance and elements of effective communication adds value to the 4 learnings from the other three themes. 5 (Please add Figure 1 here or as nearby as is practical) 6Theme 1: Room for Improvement 7As mentioned in the previous study, (McDermott and others 2015) only 8 35% of respondents felt the communication training they received in 9 veterinary school prepared them "well" or "very well" for communicating 10 with clients. Results from the current study suggest this is may be due to 11 a combination of the amount and type of training received, experience in 12 practice (which can be summarized by the comment "it's difficult to know 13 what one needs to do until one has had to do it"), and individual ability. Other respondents suggested that communication is a skill that may be 1 developed more easily in some than others, depending on individual 2 ability: 3 "Communication skills can be learned to some degree, but it's 4 been my experience through the years that certain people are 5 naturally better with communication than others and with some, 6 training doesn't improve skills that much." (Female practitioner, 7 age 68, US) 8 and those who will not control their children -these are the more 12 common problems in our area." (Male practitioner, age 28, UK) 13 US) 3"Communication skills should be incorporated into clinical years 4 at university." (Male practitioner, age 62, UK) 5 "I wish that we had such training when at university -I have had 6 to learn the hard way and have felt very unprepared for many 7 situations especially early in my career." (Male practitioner, age 8 52, UK) 9Make CPD/CE more accessible 10In order to make training more beneficial to all practitioners (and perhaps 11 address the contention that some can be taught better than others), 12 some suggested it should be tailored to participants' personalities and 13 inherent communic...

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