Veterinary Educators
Resources for those with a passion for improving the veterinary profession.
Veterinary Educators
Resources for those with a passion for improving the veterinary profession.
“I recognized that I, like every doctor, had blind spots and bad habits.”
I assumed leadership of the communication skills teaching program at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in 2010 after working in small animal general and emergency practice for more than twenty years. Although often complimented for my communication skills, I recognized that I, like every doctor, had blind spots and bad habits. This led me on a quest to learn and teach evidence-based communication skills that would predictably benefit my students, whatever their personality or species of interest.
“Teaching communication skills is hard!”
I initially encountered a lot of resistance among my students to communication instruction, and especially to role-playing. Teaching communication skills is hard! With perseverance, experimentation, research, collaboration, and creativity, however, we’ve made great strides over the past decade; our program now has remarkably high student engagement and receives strong positive student ratings. Colleagues in our teaching hospital rate our students’ communication skills highly and the consultation model we developed now has solid research behind it.
“I believe we can best benefit our students by collaborating and learning from one another.”
I’m deeply grateful for the sage advice and enlightening research of leaders in the field of veterinary communication, including Suzanne Kurtz, Jane Shaw, Cindy Adams, and Jason Coe. I’ve also benefited greatly from attending the FRANK™ program, the Institute for Healthcare Communication faculty training program, and multiple ICCVM conferences over the years. Another wonderful source of learning and support has been from fellow faculty at UC Davis and colleagues in practice, all of whom are invaluable contributors to our program. I believe we can best benefit our students by collaborating and learning from one another. With that in mind, we freely share resources here and look forward to benefiting from the work of other educators in this field.
Bringing this model to your school.
If you’d like to learn more about the communication skills teaching program at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, please feel free to contact me. We are developing a WISE COACH® “train the trainer” program in the near future for educators who want to learn more about bringing this model to their schools.
Bringing this model to your school.
If you’d like to learn more about the communication skills teaching program at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, please feel free to contact me. We are developing a WISE COACH® “train the trainer” program in the near future for educators who want to learn more about bringing this model to their schools.
Jim Clark, DVM, MBA