How strong relationships foster meaningful work
Taking the time to build relationships with clients and teammates enables us to step in during a critical illness or emergency with the utmost confidence in our ability to do right by our patients.
When I talk to people outside of the veterinary profession, I often hear how much fun it must be to work with animals. And yes, it’s a great perk of the job, but it’s not the animals that make the job meaningful for me—it’s the people.
As a veterinarian, I get to support the human–animal bond, that unique and powerful relationship between pets and their families, in many ways: from keeping pets healthy through preventive care to managing acute and chronic illnesses, to end–of–life care.
Through this journey, I get to learn about their lives and families. And I get to share my own experiences with them too.
Collaborators in pet care
For me, the most meaningful part of my day in practice is creating relationships with clients based on mutual trust and respect. This requires clear, open communication. But our conversations should not be restricted to medical topics.
It’s important to slow down and take a few minutes to talk to our clients about how their day is going, how their family is doing, or where their next vacation is going to be. Over time, these minutes add up and move our relationship from doctor-client to collaborators in pet care.
These relationships also allow us to see our clients in their most vulnerable moments—as we deliver a diagnosis of a chronic disease or guide them in making decisions around end–of–life care.
“I will never get over that we’re invited into those spaces,” shared Chrstine Staten, DVM, MBA, veterinarian and owner of Adobe Animal Hospital in Tucson, Arizona, recognizing the honor it is to be allowed to bear witness to and help care for clients in their moments of grief.
Strategies for building trust
This deep level of trust takes time to develop, and it starts with our clients seeing what we do. Not being able to have face–to–face interactions with pet owners and keeping our work outside of their view during the Covid-19 curbside service era made it more difficult to establish deep relationships with clients.
In recent years, open–concept clinics have become more common in small animal practice. They are received positively by most clients, and it is an important reminder as to how important this transparency is.
The open–concept practice may be new to small animal medicine, it isn’t new to the profession. “One of the things I love about being in large animal is everything we do is in front of people,” said Staten. “There’s a trust relationship that is so strong between a large animal vet and that owner, because they’re watching every single thing that we do.”
Regardless of what animal we’re treating, educating our clients and equipping them with the information they need is part of building that trust. Staten encourages veterinarians to create partnerships with clients and not “gatekeep” information.
“Let me help you learn why I’m doing what I’m doing, what you should be doing, when you do need to call us, when you absolutely need to be seen by us, and when we can help you over the phone a little bit,” she said.
By educating clients and allowing them to operate with some autonomy, we open the doors to transparency: The client understands that, when we say we need to see their pet in person, it really is important that we put our hands on the animal to maximize the outcome.
Encouraging teams to develop relationships
While veterinarians have an essential role in caring for pets and their people, the best client relationships include the whole team. Encouraging our staff to engage in client education and communication can help give deeper meaning to the work they do as well.
This article is part of our Stay, Please series, which focuses on providing resources (as identified in our Stay, Please retention study) to retain the 30% of all veterinary professionals considering leaving their clinical practice. Here at AAHA, we believe you were made for this work, and we’re committed to making clinical practice a sustainable career choice for every member of the team.
Photo credit: © AAHA/Mickey Thomas
Disclaimer: The views expressed, and topics discussed, in any NEWStat column or article are intended to inform, educate, or entertain, and do not represent an official position by the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) or its Board of Directors.