The Role of Communication in Coping with Complaints | 2 min read
Communication breakdowns with clients and within veterinary teams are a common source of complaints and claims (Oxtoby et al., 2015; Wallis et al., 2019; Russell et al., 2022). But what do you do once a complaint has been received?
Communication plays a critical role in how we respond to complaints and to help offer some guidance on this topic, Elly Russell, VDS Training Consultant, vet and PhD researcher, shares her top tips on how to communicate with yourself, your clients, and your teams when a complaint arises.
Talking to yourself
Top tips for heathier conversations with yourself:
- Ask yourself what you would say to a friend in this situation. Consider how and why this may differ to the way you’re speaking to yourself. What can you change?
- Can you get some perspective? Zoom out and look at the bigger picture. Talk to your colleagues and your team, speak to the VDS Claims team or make a VetSafe report. All these things can help drag us away from focusing on our own individual actions too critically.
- What are you making this complaint about? Yourself? Your skills as a vet? Does it really mean that? Can you reframe complaints as feedback? What can you learn?
Talking with clients
Top tips for healthier conversations with clients:
- Stay curious. Where might your client be coming from? Are you feeling defensive? How is that impacting how you’re communicating with them? Are you really listening?
- Acknowledgement doesn’t mean agreement. Ensure your client feels heard, check you have understood their concerns and acknowledge the impact on them.
- If things haven’t gone the way you intended, acknowledge it. This isn’t the outcome we hoped for. I wish things had gone better too. This is not the level of service we aim to deliver.
Talking as a team
Top tips for healthier team conversations:
- Talk. Even if you are not sure what to say, have a go. If you know someone has been involved in a complaint, reach out and explore how they are feeling.
- Set up regular team debriefs. Make it a habit to talk about what’s working, what’s getting in your way as a team, and what’s not working so well. This lowers the barrier to talking about complaints. VetSafe can help facilitate these conversations to ultimately improve the quality of veterinary care.
- And finally, listen.
What can VDS members do?
- Looking for further support? Available at an exclusive discount for VDS members, our Complaints Handling Course, created by our team of experts at VDS Training, has been specifically designed to help develop your knowledge, skills, and confidence in handling complaints effectively and successfully. Find out more by visiting the VDS Training website or call our team on +44 (0) 1565 743862.
- Advice and guidance from our Claims team, experienced veterinary professionals with a combined 210 years of handling veterinary claims and complaints for VDS members. Open 9am-5pm Monday to Friday, you can call our Advice Line to discuss anything that may be concerning you or visit our website and log in to access a host of online, member-only resources including Advice Notes.
- Check out our NEW online Claims and Complaints Hub for more information and support on the emotional side of complaints, how to write a response letter to a complaint, the journey of a complaint or claim and the importance of clinical note taking, plus much more!
- If you’re not already using VetSafe, then consider using the VDS's confidential significant event reporting system. Exclusive to VDS members, VetSafe helps you explore incidents and near misses, and understand the factors that may have led to them in a blame-free way.
- And lastly, read Elly’s full research paper via VetRecord Open Access by visiting www.thevds.info/ellyrussell
References
Oxtoby, C. et al. (2015) ‘We need to talk about error: causes and types of error in veterinary practice’, Veterinary Record, 177(17), pp. 438–438. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1136/vr.103331.
Russell, E. et al. (2022) ‘Uncovering the ‘messy details’ of veterinary communication: An analysis of communication problems in cases of alleged professional negligence’, Veterinary Record, 190(3). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/VETR.1068.
Wallis, J. et al. (2019) ‘Medical Errors Cause Harm in Veterinary Hospitals’, Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 6. Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2019.00012 (Accessed: 19 November 2022).
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