| Consultations are a fundamental part of first opinion veterinary work and making a diagnostic or treatment decision is central to achieving the best outcome for all stakeholders. The aim of this study, was to explore vet and client experiences and opinions of what happens in a successful small animal consultation.
Convenience sampling was used to recruit participants for focus groups and semi-structured interviews conducted between January and June 2017. Groups were audio recorded, transcribed intelligent verbatim and thematic analysis was performed.
Twenty-one focus groups (thirteen veterinarian and eight client) and three semi-structured interviews (clients) were completed. Results indicated the importance of context in decision making with client preferences for the strength of veterinarian input into a shared decision being dependent upon individual and situational factors. Decision making was acknowledged by vets to occupy a large proportion of health problem consultations. Both vets and clients reported faster and easier decision making when there was a pre-existing relationship, attributed to a two-way increase in trust. Clients cited a desire to be presented with a wide range of options, including inaction. Many clients reported wanting to know what the veterinarian would do in the same circumstance despite not necessarily electing to make the same decision.
These results suggest that decision making is context specific. A relationship centred approach to veterinary care is both desired by veterinary clients and may facilitate better decision making.
Authors:
*CORAH, L1, COBB, K1, MOSSOP, L1 and DEAN, RS2 1. School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington, United Kingdom; 2. Centre for Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington, United Kingdom |