Empathy Is a Powerful Practice Tool
Veterinary professionals are very empathetic, but they’ve been told not to project that empathy to clients.
Veterinary professionals are very empathetic, says John Owens, veterinary attorney at the Law Offices of John Owens, LLC, but they’ve been told not to project that empathy or apologize to clients through their academic and professional training.
However, empathy is a wonderful tool that can be used to improve practice culture and provide another benefit to clientele. In human medicine, research has shown that apologizing for medical mistakes reduces malpractice claims by up to 24 percent and reduces the value of those claims by up to 40 percent. Although research has not been done specific to veterinary medicine, Owens suspects the results would be similar.
