Enhancing udder health with clinical communication skills: evidence based communication frameworks for the 22nd century

Abstract

Communication is a core clinical skill of veterinary medicine and it must be taught and learned to the same extent as other clinical skills. Veterinary schools across North America, UK, EU, Australia and the Caribbean have developed or commenced development of communication skills programs and assessment strategies. These initiatives are fuelled by overwhelming evidence in favour of communication skills training required for practice success. More recently communication skills education is taking place on site in veterinary practices resulting in significantly improved relationship-centered communication which includes moving beyond traditional history taking to include questions pertaining to the client’s beliefs and values. Humanistic oriented research in production animal medicine also reveals that the farmer’s attitude (i.e their unique perspective) rather than behaviour is predictive of the incidence of mastitis. To date much of the focus in production animal/communication research has been on developing global communication strategies. This research has been highly informative, and we must move beyond broad based strategies and understanding of our audience. This paper describes the frameworks, based on 40 years of combined research in human and veterinary medicine, currently being used in veterinary education and practice settings, and review what is necessary for teaching, learning and utilizing communication to a mastery level of competence.