What is a good consultation?
Defining the “good” consultation: what does it look like and how do we measure this?
The consultation is arguably the most crucial step in the veterinarian-client-patient relationship. However, the nature of the veterinary consultation is a complex one, with multiple stakeholders, time and often financial constraints. Veterinary undergraduates at all UK universities are taught consultation skills using the Calgary-Cambridge model, which has been adapted for veterinary medicine. This model focuses on vet-client communication. There is currently no veterinary-specific consultation teaching model.
This PhD is divided into three distinct studies:
- A systematic review of the literature which identified measures of consultation ‘success’ and papers which described small animal consults.
- Focus groups with clients and vets which identified stakeholder opinions on what the important aspects of consultations are.
- Observation of video-recorded consultations to establish the feasibility of assessing a consult using the measures identified in studies one and two and the creation of a model for quantifying consultation success.
To find out more about the project, or to get involved with the final consult scoring study, please contact Louise Corah: louise.corah@nottingham.ac.uk
We would like to acknowledge the support and match funding from Onswitch Ltd.