'Nudging' is a useful tool in practice
Drs Jessica Barnes and James Andrews speaking at London Vet Show.
"It is much better to work with the grain when we are trying to change human behaviour," said Dr Jessica Barnes, speaking in the opening session at the BVA Congress that explored ways that vets could change owner behaviour for better welfare.
"Make the most of social tendencies," she said. "It is important to make things easy and to use an appropriate, authoritative messenger. Messages should be timely too."
There is a tendency for professionals – who have a wealth of complicated information to share – to feel pressurised into trying to explain it all to clients, which results in over-communication and confusion. This turns people off and instead of responding to the message, they ignore it. So it is vital to decide what the core message is and to present it in a very simple, accessible, personalised format.
In this same session, vet Dr James Andrews underpinned the principles outlined by Jessica and explained how IT can be used to communicate with clients and nudge their behaviour. The shift in human healthcare – from being proactive rather than reactive in nature – is an example of where this is already happening and many of these initiatives can be applied to veterinary practice.
Telemedicine will revolutionise the relationship between vets and clients and might encourage people, who would otherwise find 'visiting the vet' difficult or expensive, to seek healthcare advice for their animals. Pet owners want more control of their pet's health and there is an increasing expectation of access to a 24/7 veterinary service.
Defra has published guidance for the vet sector ahead of a proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
