Pet food is deeply personal for many cat and dog owners and their choices are compounded by the explosion of choices. Raw, organic, fresh, frozen and nearly any other human food trend you can imagine make pet food choices challenging. Ernie Ward DVM, CVFT, says, “to successfully educate and avoid offending clients, veterinary professionals need to have a communication strategy, remain emotionally neutral and focus on nutrition’s impact on the pet’s well-being.”
Ward asserts that veterinary professionals need to become more involved in recommending maintenance diets. He says veterinarians and veterinary technicians are considered largely inconsequential in consumers’ pet food choices.
Source: Today’s Veterinary Business, June/July 2022. Link. Advocating for taking a narrative nutritional history, Ward models asking open-ended medical history questions to facilitate a client’s storytelling.
<Narrative conversations> are more natural for clients and allow team members to elicit and investigate subtle feeding behaviors and activities in a non-threatening manner. It’s a friendly conversation, not a dueling debate.” – Ernie Ward DVM, CVFT
Also see: Practicing narrative medicine, AHD, September 23, 2019. Link.
<narrative medicine> is authentic engagement . . . diagnostic listening . . . rather than perfunctorily going down checklists.”