Sunday, August 9, 2009

Can Veterinarians Help Teachers Handle Parents?

Well, probably not directly. (That was just to make a catchy headline.) But I suspect that some of you were already starting to brainstorm new uses for bovine restraint tools and large-animal tranquilizers.

But some recently-released research from Dr. Jane Shaw of the Argus Institute at Colorado State University (DVM Magazine, July 2009, page 10) may be of help as you try to coach staff to be more effective with parents, especially those parents that are receiving bad news (behavior/discipline issues, midterm notices, homework problems, etc.).

To summarize quickly, the Dr. Shaw discovered that…

• During wellness visits, vets & pet owners had a dialogue & the owner had an active role due to a partnership approach on the part of the Vet.

• During visits regarding problems, 26% of owners seemed anxious & 14% seemed emotionally distressed (I'll bet the % is higher with parents contacted because of problems at school!).

Dr. Shaw suggests that Vets have a "flexible toolbox" of styles, and to ask open-ended questions to encourage patients to open up.

This research is definitely designed to help Veterinarians improve customer service. There is not much written about customer service in education publications, but this research may provide a novel opener to begin a discussion on this topic with staff.