Do you or a colleague sometimes find it hard to balance all the clinical, client, financial challenges that are part and parcel of veterinary consultations? Perhaps you feel overwhelmed at times by the never-ending uncertainty of clinical work due to the limitations of the information available from our physical senses? Is this uncertainty eroding your confidence? Maybe you’re new to the profession or maybe you’ve even been consulting for a while and you worry that clients might complain about your advice – or even worse, sue you!? Perhaps you are trying to work out how much to guide clients and the how to do so without coming across as too pushy or too salesy? Maybe get you frustrated when clients doubt, dispute or resist your advice? Perhaps you struggle to stick to time? If you recognise any of these issues – as well as many others – such as feeling uncomfortable talking about money, this Colourful Consultation course offers a very practical means of tackling these issues. The Colourful Consultation model incorporates the standard problem-solving approach to clinical reasoning and resolution within a consensus-based approach to decision-making.
It has been said that good communicators use ‘fewer better words’. This course will help you avoid a common mistake when communicating complex concepts – overexplaining! You will learn why the rule of 3 is central to human communication; people struggle to remember, compare or decide between more than three at once; people often need to hear something 3 times before they believe it is true. You will learn how to conceptualise and frame common clinical situations as well as dozens of phrases that help you explain risk, options and manage expectations using ‘fewer better words’. One of the key skills you will learn in this course is the art of articulating a differential diagnoses list and how subtle changes in the words and sentences you use can have significant impact in a client’s perceptions of your knowledge and ability.
The hallmarks of confidence is the ability to manage uncertainty, master difficult situations and be ‘of value’ to others. This course will help you do this and thus contain much of the anxiety and stress associated with clinical practice. Not only will you feel more confident, you will find that your clients respond better to your proposals and you will feel less nervous about receiving complaints that stem from sub-optimal communication. You will feel more confident talking about money as a result of understanding the underlying drivers of what we call ‘econo-phobia’. Once you have mastered all these skills yourself, you will be able to coach others to learn and master them as well.
