Shut down your practice to shut down parasites

Getting your team involved is an important step in educating clients about parasites. Closing your doors for a few hours might be the best way to initiate this training.

While parasite prevention might be second nature to you, your team members might not be as comfortable with the concept. And if they're not well-versed in your parasitology program, can you really expect your clients to get on board? Probably not, says Dr. Julie Clark-Blount, co-owner of Laurel Oaks Animal Hospital in Kingsland, Ga. And she knows that training is all about constant reinforcement, not just an occasional meeting here and there.

So at Laurel Oaks Animal Hospital, Dr. Clark-Blount holds mandatory staff meetings each Wednesday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. to discuss a litany of important issues—one of the most important being parasite prevention. Team members take quizzes or discuss scenarios to learn better communication strategies and find new ways to connect with clients.

The meetings help team members understand, for example, that client errors in application often lead to the failure of preventive products on their pets. Dr. Clark-Blount helps the team find consistent, unified ways to help clients correct these errors—and avoid making them in the future. "The meetings are a good way to keep people on the ball and keep their minds working," Dr. Clark-Blount says. "If all team members have input into how we communicate with clients, they feel more confident about what they'll say."

And that confidence is key to getting the practice's message on parasite prevention across, Dr. Clark-Blount says. "We go over the information until it's like tying your shoes so the staff is confident enough to address it with clients," she says. "Quizzes and tests have made it everyday knowledge for our team members."