Communication skills influence horse owners’ trust in their equine veterinarians

Rutherford, David J.; England, Jade T.

Abstract

Background: Trust is an essential component of the relationship between veterinarians and horse owners. To what extent do horse owners consider their vets to be trustworthy, what aspects are important to horse owners when evaluating their vet's trustworthiness and how can equine vets become more trusted?. Methods: Using an anonymous online survey, we asked horse owners whether they consider their veterinarians to be credible, reliable, empathetic and self-orientated, and therefore trustworthy compared with other professionals. Which of their equine vet's characteristics and behaviours influence how credible, reliable, empathetic and self-orientated, and therefore trustworthy, they appear? Credibility, reliability, empathy and self-orientation scores for equine veterinarians, human medical general practitioners (GPs), hairdressers/barbers and dentists were compared using a Kruskal‒Wallis H-test and post hoc Dunn's test and then combined to create a trustworthiness rating. The importance of various characteristics and behaviours displayed by equine vets when horse owners assess how credible, reliable, empathetic and self-orientated they appear was investigated using quantitative scoring and thematic analysis. Results: A total of 415 horse owners completed the survey. Overall, respondents considered equine veterinarians to be significantly more credible, reliable and empathetic than GPs, hairdressers/barbers and dentists. Using the trust equation, equine veterinarians had the highest trustworthiness rating(8.33), followed by hairdressers/barbers and dentists (5.5) and then GPs (4.75). Limitations: Only the views of a small subset of horse owners are represented. As such, the findings may not be representative of horse owners more generally. Conclusions: Veterinarians' communication skills influence clients' perceptions of their credibility, reliability, empathy and self-orientation. Additionally, equine veterinarians should develop their clinical skills and knowledge to increase credibility. Meanwhile, perceptions of reliability, empathy and self-orientation can be improved by continuity of care, demonstrating a clear interest in the patient and avoiding rushed consultations, respectively.

Citation

Rutherford, D. J., & England, J. T. (2024). Communication skills influence horse owners’ trust in their equine veterinarians. Veterinary Record, 195(10), Article e4705. https://doi.org/10.1002/vetr.4705

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 12, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Nov 15, 2024
• Publication Date: Nov 16, 2024
• Deposit Date: Oct 14, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 16, 2025
• Journal: Veterinary Record
• Print ISSN: 0042-4900
• Electronic ISSN: 2042-7670
• Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 195
• Issue: 10
• Article Number: e4705
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/vetr.4705
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/40569713
• Publisher URL: https://bvajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/vetr.4705