Compassionate Client Communication

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Katherine Dobbs, RVT, CVPM, PHR

In regards to compassion fatigue, Our teams may become dispirited and increasingly cynical at work, make clinical errors, lose a respectful stance towards their clients and patients, and contribute to a toxic work environment.

~ Mathieu, 2007

When we have compassion fatigue as individuals, or it infiltrates the veterinary organization, many things happen. As mentioned above, the veterinary professionals become jaded about their work. Being dispirited, or no longer feeling that “calling” to help animals, can cause apathy which in turn can make the individual more susceptible to making clinical errors…they just don’t care as much. Certainly too many people on a team with compassion fatigue can contribute to a toxic work environment overall. Yet probably the biggest factor related to our practices’ success and the reputation of veterinary medicine overall is the tendency for team members with compassion fatigue to either discard acting respectful to clients, or be out-and-out DISrespectful to our clients. Besides the danger to the “big picture” of the practice’s success, this type of attitude or behavior can lead to an abrupt halt in employment at a practice, or ruin our professional career for good.

The danger is that it is very difficult for an individual to objectively gauge how well they are communicating with clients. Already in the shroud or fog of compassion fatigue, it becomes nearly impossible to look at ourselves in the mirror and gain an honest perspective on the person we put forward to those around us. Certainly if there are squabbles and run-ins among the team members, you can suspect that this type of behavior spills over into client communication. By the time a member of management calls out a veterinary professional for problems with client communication, it’s often been happening for a while, and negatively affected many clients before it came to the attention of management. This typically happens when a client finally launches a complaint, and the old adage is that for every one person who complains, there are ten others who would have liked to but didn’t. So it’s imperative that team members and management recognize when compassion fatigue is interfering with the level of client care provided by the practice. The personal symptoms of compassion fatigue give us a guide to determine if compassion fatigue is negatively affecting our client communication.

  • Bottled up emotions: when a team member is holding in his or her emotions for too long, s/he finally explodes; this does not only happen in “the back” but can occur during interactions with clients. A team member may respond with anger, frustration, or even grief that is much stronger than the situation calls for. The reaction is blown out of proportion.
  • Impulse to rescue anyone (or anyTHING) in need: at our very core, we want to help animals. This impulse is put to the test when a family cannot afford or chooses not to pursue treatment for their pet. In this situation, team members become tempted to ask to adopt these animals, rather than see them humanely euthanized. This becomes a problem at many levels. In regards to the client, this family who might have had extreme difficulty coming to this conclusion is now faced with the decision to keep their pet alive, but living with someone else. This may be a conversation that the practice wants to avoid altogether, in which case a policy should be constructed to protect both the family and the team member.
  • Isolation from others: there are team members who tend to thrive on the fringe of the group, and they may have been like that from the beginning. Then there are those who may begin pulling away as compassion fatigue takes hold. This can be recognized by other team members, because it affects their relationships. This isolation can in turn make it more difficult for this team member to connect with clients. They will sense this separation, and may not have the level of trust in this team member.
  • Sadness and apathy: it’s obviously difficult to communicate with others when sadness is a pervasive emotion. Yet apathy is even more dangerous. Clients can sense when someone doesn’t care, about them, their pet, or the outcome of the visit. These clients will be reluctant to agree to the care that is being recommended, and more likely to find fault with the services. At the bottom of most all complaints is the simple fact that the client didn’t feel compassion from the team member. Apathy and compassion do not often coexist.
  • Feeling the need to voice excessive complaints about management and coworkers: while we may only think this affects the world “behind the scenes”, it can go way beyond this and creep up front. When team members feel pressed into a corner by a client, for example, they are more likely to blame the practice’s policies, the management itself, or even their coworkers. The motto “it’s not your fault, but it is your problem” is one that needs to be grasped by team members; even if they were not involved in the specific issue mentioned by the client, they are responsible for finding a way forward to an agreeable end. This acceptance of responsibility won’t happen with team members who are experiencing compassion fatigue.
  • Lack of interest in self-care practices: we communicate by words of course, but this is only 10% of the message we send out. The majority of the message is body language. When team members cannot rouse themselves to take care of their personal needs such as hygiene and appearance, this sends a message to our clients. It demeans the professional atmosphere and can lead to mistrust. Everything in the practice affects the client experience, especially the people they come into contact with during a visit.
  • Reoccurring nightmare, flashbacks: when a team member is experiencing these more severe symptoms of compassion fatigue, they will come to believe that if they do not connect, they may be able to avoid these “hauntings”. Again, apathy becomes the safest way to reduce the negative effects of forming relationships with clients. The connections become very superficial, if they indeed fit the definition of “relationship”.
  • Persistent physical ailments: a team member must be physically present, in the best shape possible, in order to form healthy connections with clients. When a team member is not feeling their best, they can’t put their best foot forward with the client interaction that is part of their job. If the ailments result in absences, they aren’t there to serve your clients at all!
  • Difficulties concentrating and mentally tired: a team member is responsible for taking information from the client, and relaying it to the rest of the team or assessing how it will affect the animal’s care. This requires concentration, and the ability to be mentally alert to absorb the details and process the impact of this information. This cannot take place with a team member who has “checked out” mentally.
  • Prone to accidents: when a team member is involved in an accident with a patient, such as becoming bit or scratched, this information must be relayed to the client. In some states, it’s a legal requirement to report all bites, and the authorities follow up with the family. Otherwise for the sake of the team member’s health and recovery, often times the family needs to understand how their pet was involved. It’s not the fault of the animal if the accident occurred because the team member wasn’t concentrating on proper restraint, for example, yet the client becomes negatively affected. Injuries are bound to happen at times, but a rise in these types of accidents will have a trickle-down effect on the clientele of the practice.

Compassion Fatigue may begin as a “personal issue” affecting an individual team member, but as it takes root it affects the person’s behavior, attitude, and interaction with others. This includes our clients, the pet owners we are committed to helping with the animals they love. This ability to help requires a connection, both emotional and intellectual, in order to best serve the pet and the family. When compassion fatigue exists, these connections become difficult if not impossible to generate and maintain. This negatively affects the veterinary practice and its success, and also dooms the individual veterinary professional to a myriad of unfavorable outcomes.

The first step is to recognize the effect compassion fatigue is having on the individual, and sometimes this is initially made apparent by client complaints regarding communication with the veterinary team and a team member in particular. Take these complaints seriously; solve them to the client’s satisfaction, but then move beyond to examine the root of the issue and perhaps discover the individual on the team that needs to become aware of how to recognize and recover from compassion fatigue. In a very real sense, we’re all in this together!

Resources:

Healthy Caregiving by Patricia Smith



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