Validity evidence for communication skills assessment in health professions education: a scoping review.

Objective: Communication skills assessment (CSA) is essential for ensuring competency, guiding educational practices and safeguarding regulatory compliance in health professions education (HPE). However, there appears to be heterogeneity in the reporting of validity evidence from CSA methods across the health profession that complicates our interpretation of the quality of assessment methods. Our objective was to map reliability and validity evidence from scores of CSA methods that have been reported in HPE.

"It's Like Having a Map": An Exploration of Participating Pet Owners' Expectations of Using Telemedicine to Access Emergency Veterinary Care.

(1) Background: Telemedicine is increasingly recognized as a potential way to help overcome barriers to accessing veterinary care. This study explored pet owners' perspectives on telemedicine services in situation they viewed as veterinary emergencies, focusing on both their access-to-care challenges and their expectations of such services. (2) Methods: Semi-structured, one-on-one interviews were conducted with 18 pet owners in Ontario, Canada.

Implicit weight bias exists among veterinary professionals.

Objective: To explore implicit weight bias and weight stigma by association within a sample of veterinary professionals.

Methods: An electronic survey was administered in person to veterinary professionals. Participants were presented with 1 of 8 possible scenarios including silhouettes of pets (4 cats, 4 dogs) and clients with varying combinations of weight statuses.

Veterinary team relational coordination is associated with healthier perception of workplace psychological climate, increased job satisfaction, and reduced intention to leave.

Objective: To describe veterinary professionals' perceptions of relational coordination (RC) within their veterinary hospital and examine associations with perceived workplace psychological climate, job satisfaction, and intention to leave.

Methods: All 4,676 employees working in 136 corporate-owned veterinary hospitals were invited to respond to an online survey. Measures included employees' perceptions regarding RC, workplace psychological climate, job satisfaction, and intention to leave their hospital.

The Talking Physical Exam: a communication tool for engaging clients during the companion animal physical exam.

Objective: To provide a video tutorial on the use of the Talking Physical Exam (TPE) in clinical practice.

Animals: Any dog or cat receiving a physical examination in the presence of a client.

Methods: The TPE consists of the veterinary professional verbally describing what is being examined on a patient during a companion animal physical examination and relaying normal and abnormal findings to veterinary clients.

2025 AAHA Referral Guidelines.

Across the many types of specialty practitioners and hospitals, the requirements for veterinary patient referrals vary from one-time consultations to long-term case oversight and management. These guidelines propose a structured and technology-based approach to optimize the referral process for patients, clients, and veterinary teams. They emphasize a family-centered health care approach that keeps the focus on patients and clients through consistent collaboration between primary and specialty care teams.

Promoters and Detractors Identify Virtual Care as "Worlds Better than Nothing": A Qualitative Study of Participating Veterinarians' Perception of Virtual Care as a Tool for Providing Access.

(1) Background: Veterinary virtual care holds the potential to alleviate some barriers to accessing care, yet concerns within the profession exist. Understanding veterinarians' perspectives and identifying the potential opportunities and challenges that virtual care poses for access to veterinary care are thus needed. (2) Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted virtually with 22 companion-animal veterinarians practicing across Canada and the United States.

A Need for Targeted Teaching of Shared Decision-Making as Identified from an Assessment of Client-Centered Communication Skills Training with Companion Animal Veterinarians.

Shared decision-making has been increasingly discussed as a communication practice within veterinary medicine, and it is gaining more traction for diagnostic and treatment planning conversations and specifically offering a spectrum of care. This teaching tip describes the data from an investigation of veterinarians' shared decision-making in a pre-test/post-test communication skills training intervention that used a client-centered, skills-based communication approach. Practice teams from a purposive sample of four companion animal veterinary clinics in Texas participated in a 15-month communication skills intervention, including interactive group workshops and one-on-one communication coaching.

Veterinary clients prefer benefit-focused online communication while clinic websites uncommonly communicate benefits of preventive care services.

Objective: To explore client preferences for how value is communicated via written means and to assess the consistency of this preference with how veterinary clinic websites present this information for preventive care services.

Methods: First, a questionnaire was developed to assess clients' preference between 2 researcher-developed paragraphs recommending senior pet screening (one focused on the function of screening, the other on pet benefits of screening) and distributed from August 17 to November 2, 2023. Second, veterinary clinic websites were retrieved with a search engine using predefined search phrases related to 4 preventive care topics (flea and tick prevention, heartworm prevention, dental cleaning, and senior bloodwork).

The Value Matrix: a communication tool to support shared decision-making and the practice of Spectrum of Care.

Objective: To provide a video tutorial on use of the Value Matrix in clinical practice.

Animals: Any animal for which a preference-sensitive decision can be made regarding their care.

Methods: The veterinary professional gathers a comprehensive history from the veterinary client and uses this information, in further discussion with the client, to develop 2 or more evidence-informed options for the veterinary patient's care.

Clients prefer collaborative decision-making with veterinarians regardless of appointment type.

Objective: To determine clients' preferences for veterinarians' communication during decision-making in relation to 3 clinical contexts: preventive care, general problem (eg, illness or injury), and urgent appointments.

Methods: A cross-sectional online questionnaire was distributed by use of snowball sampling to veterinary clients owning a pet. Demographic information was collected, and participants were then randomly assigned to a scenario reflecting one of the following clinical contexts (appointment types): preventive, general problem, or urgent.

Impact on life expectancy was the most important information to clients when considering whether to take action for an overweight or obese dog.

Objective: To determine dog owner preferences for information communicated during veterinarian-client obesity-related conversations within companion animal practice.

Sample: Dog owners recruited using snowball sampling.

Methods: A cross-sectional online questionnaire was distributed to dog owners.

Information about life expectancy related to obesity is most important to cat owners when deciding whether to act on a veterinarian's weight loss recommendation.

Objective: To determine the relative importance of information communicated to cat owners during veterinarian-client obesity-related conversations.

Sample: Cat owner participants recruited via snowball sampling.

Methods: A cross-sectional online questionnaire was distributed to cat owners who owned cats of any weight status.

What do veterinary professionals and clients want? Using discrete choice methods in veterinary research to determine preferences.

Discrete choice methods (DCMs) are a suite of research techniques for identifying individual preferences using choice information. Widely utilized by other fields yet rarely employed in veterinary research, DCMs have tremendous potential to improve veterinary healthcare by understanding and incorporating owner and veterinary professionals' (encompassing veterinarians, veterinary clinicians, technicians, receptionists, attendants, etc) preferences to optimize the care continuum. DCMs have several advantages over other stated preference methods, such as ranking and ratings, including improved data quality and actionability.

Workplace psychosocial factors are associated with veterinary employees' organizational commitment to their current veterinary hospital.

Objective: To classify a sample of veterinary professionals into distinct organizational-commitment profiles and to identify associations between psychosocial aspects of the workplace and organizational-commitment profile membership.

Sample: 487 veterinary employees who worked for a corporate veterinary organization in Canada.

Methods: Survey components measured for this study included the Three-Component Model (TCM) Employee Commitment Survey-Revised, the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire, and participant demographics.

Qualitative analysis of small animal veterinarian-perceived barriers to nutrition communication.

Objective: Nutrition is important in preventing and managing disease. Veterinarians are an important source of nutrition information; however, nutrition communication between veterinarians and pet owners is relatively infrequent. The purpose of this study was to conduct a qualitative review of barriers to nutrition communication and possible solutions, reported by small animal veterinarians.

Veterinary team members experiencing high levels of burden transfer are more likely to report burnout and a less optimal psychosocial work environment.

Objective: To describe burden transfer in a sample of veterinary workers employed by a Canadian veterinary corporation and to examine the association between different levels of burden transfer and employee burnout and perceived psychosocial work environment.

Sample: 475 employees of small-animal veterinary hospitals owned by a corporate practice group.

Methods: Veterinary team members among 14 working groups responded to an online survey that included assessments of burden transfer, psychosocial environment, and burnout within the workplace.

Companion animal veterinarians discuss aspects of one health with pet owners during most veterinary appointments.

Objective: To examine the prevalence and context of one-health conversations between veterinarians and clients in companion animal practice.

Sample: A random selection of 60 companion animal veterinarians; a convenience sample of 917 interactions from Southern Ontario, Canada. Of these, 100 audio-video-recorded interactions including 47 of 60 veterinarians were randomly selected for inclusion in this study.

Veterinarians are reluctant to recommend virtual consultations to a fellow veterinarian.

Objective: To explore veterinarians' use of virtual veterinarian-client-patient consultations before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and examine veterinarians' attitudes toward virtual consultations.

Sample: 135 companion animal veterinarians in Canada, the US, and Europe.

Methods: An anonymous online survey was distributed to gather participating veterinarians' use of information and communication technologies and their perception of virtual consultations' effect on patient care, client communication, and their own well-being.

Conversation Analysis of Clients' Active Resistance to Veterinarians' Proposals for Long-Term Dietary Change in Companion Animal Practice in Ontario, Canada.

The impact of nutrition on animal health requires effective diet-related treatment recommendations in veterinary medicine. Despite low reported rates of veterinary clients' adherence with dietary recommendations, little is known about how clients' resistance to nutritional proposals is managed in the talk of veterinary consultations. This conversation-analytic study investigated clients' active resistance to veterinarians' proposals for long-term changes to cats' and dogs' diets in 23 segments from 21 videotaped appointments in Ontario, Canada.

On-site communication skills education increases client-centered communication in four companion animal practices.

Objective: To evaluate veterinarian-client communication before and after a 15-month on-site communication skills training intervention.

Procedures: Multipractice, pretest-posttest intervention study.

Sample: A convenience sample of 4 companion animal practices owned by a single practice group in Austin, Texas (n = 9 veterinarians; 170 audio recordings).

Veterinarians' use of shared decision making during on-farm interactions with dairy and beef producers.

Background: The objectives of this study were to explore the level of shared decision making (SDM) between veterinarians and dairy and beef producers during on-farm interactions and to identify factors associated with veterinarians' use of SDM behaviours.

Methods: A cross-sectional sample of food-animal veterinarians and their clients were recruited in Ontario, Canada. Their on-farm interactions were audio-video recorded.

Veterinary technicians contribute to shared decision-making during companion animal veterinary appointments.

Objective: To describe and compare veterinary professionals' use of shared decision-making during companion animal appointments.

Design: Multi-practice cross-sectional study.

Sample: A purposive sample of 4 companion animal veterinary clinics in a group practice in Texas.

Discussion of cost continues to be uncommon in companion animal veterinary practice.

Objective: To determine the prevalence and nature of cost conversations occurring during veterinarian-client-patient interactions within companion animal practice.

Samples: 60 randomly selected, practicing veterinarians working in 55 practices across southern Ontario, Canada, and 909 of their clients, sampled by convenience.

Procedures: A cross-sectional descriptive study including 917 video-recorded appointments.