Effective communication skills are vital in veterinary medicine, influencing companion animal patient care, human client satisfaction, and practitioner well-being. In veterinary medicine, good communication optimizes patient care by ensuring that diagnoses and treatment plans are clearly understood and followed. Moreover, effective communication increases client satisfaction and trust, which are essential for building long-term relationships with pet guardians. Importantly, positive communication plays a crucial role in reducing practitioner burnout. Clients form an initial impression of veterinarian practitioners within the first few minutes of an appointment, which can impact client adherence to veterinarian recommendations.

Consequently, relationship-centered care is positively associated with pet guardians following veterinary recommendations (Kanji et al., 2012). However, client interactions can also be a significant source of stress for veterinarian practitioners, particularly when faced with conflict, displaced blame, or strong emotional responses from clients (Kanji et al., 2012; McMurray & Boysen, 2017; Vande Griek et al., 2018). Identified communication gaps in veterinary practice include a lack of empathy for the client’s perspective, minimizing the importance of clients’ motivations and feelings, and infrequent use of open-ended inquiry (Bard et al., 2017; McArthur & Fitzgerald, 2013). Therefore, addressing these gaps is crucial for fostering better client relationships, improving patient outcomes, and increasing practitioner job satisfaction (Best, 2013). Effective approaches to communication in veterinary practice include embracing RCC and engaging in client-centered talk and rapport-building (Kanji et al., 2012).

By encouraging client participation in treatment processes and validating their experiences, veterinarians can enhance client understanding and minimize miscommunication. RCC also can be enhanced through the application of Motivational Interviewing (MI), an evidenced-based communication strategy widely used across human healthcare settings, and more recently explored in veterinarian medicine (Bard et al., 2017). Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a counseling approach that helps individuals resolve ambivalence about change. It involves guiding clients towards behavior change by exploring their motivations, values, and goals in a non-confrontational and empathetic manner. MI basic techniques include active listening, expressing empathy, developing discrepancy between current behavior and goals, rolling with resistance, and supporting self-efficacy (Miller & Rollnick, 2013).

In the context of veterinarian medicine, the use of MI skills can strengthen practitioner-client rapport (Bard et al., 2017; Svensson et al., 2020), especially when pet guardians might be reluctant or uncertain about how to follow veterinarian recommendations for patient care. Given the growing imperative to help veterinarians feel confident in addressing the interpersonal aspects of their occupation and avoid burnout, the use of MI represents an exciting new frontier. In this presentation, attendees will be introduced to the major concepts of MI and learn how MI can enhance relationship-centered care and possibly reduce symptoms of professional burnout in veterinary practitioners, technicians, nurses, and staff. The presentation will include interactive discussion and case scenarios to illustrate the application of MI principles in veterinary practice settings.