Clinical empathy for you, me, and everybody

On this week's episode of The Vet Blast Podcast presented by dvm360, host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, welcomes Josh Rosen, DVM, to the show to discuss clinical empathy in practice. Throughout the episode, Rosen and Christman talk about how empathy in the exam room can help build trust and improve patient outcomes by acknowledging and understanding a client's emotions

Below is a partial transcript, edited lightly for clarity.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: When we talk about empathy, what do you think are some common myths or misunderstandings that there may be about empathy and vet med that you wish more people would recognize?

Josh Rosen, DVM: The biggest thing that I hear is that it takes too much time.... I think that people don't recognize how much redundancy exists because of poor communication. How many times have we had something have to be redone, or had to redo a treatment plan, or have the assistant go back and forth between the exam room and the treatment room because we missed the mark on what we thought the pet parent was aiming for that day, as far as their goals are concerned? When we have that connection, and when I'm able to really be on the same team with that pet parent, in regards to whatever they're presenting for, I'm able to go through my recommendations and feel confident being present in that room when we review the treatment plan. So [now] that I'm here, let's talk about any struggles that you have so that we make a plan that is best suited for you.

The other reason why I'm doing that is so we aren't inefficient, right? I don't want that time wasted going back and forth and then maybe even exhausting the pet parent to make them eventually feel like it's not worth doing anything, because that would be the worst-case scenario.... The other thing, too, is that empathy does not mean agreeing, and I think that I probably take that one a little bit too personal sometimes, but...you don't have to agree with someone in order to empathize [with] them. In fact, if you don't agree with someone, it may be even more important for you to try to empathize, because clearly you're not understanding their perspective. If you think you're at odds with each other because they disagree with you, if you're feeling as though there's [a] 1-vs-1 attitude when we're talking about treatment plan presentation, it often is that we're falling into the habit that we can't empathize if we don't agree. And it's just the complete opposite. If you want that pet parent to buy-in, you need to empathize with them if they don't agree. You need to see what that pain point is so you can meet them halfway.