Online behaviour change technique training to support healthcare staff ‘Make Every Contact Count’

Abstract

Background National Health Service (NHS) staff support service users to change health-related behaviours such as smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and physical activity. It can be challenging to discuss behaviour changes with service users hence training is needed to equip staff with up-to-date, evidence-based behaviour change skills. In order to identify how training may help to improve health professional skills in this area, this study evaluated change in professionals’ behavioural determinants following an online behaviour change skills module as part of Making Every Contact Count (MECC) training. Methods This evaluation comprised a within-subject design in which staff from one Northwest England NHS Trust completed a 9-item survey immediately before and after training. This prospective survey identified behavioural determinants regarding adhering to MECC recommendations to hold health conversations with service users and provided written comments about their training experiences. Individuals working within the Trust in clinical or non-clinical roles were eligible to take part and were invited to contribute to the evaluation upon uptake of their usual NHS staff online training programmes. Results Of participants completing the evaluation (n=206), 12 professional cadres accessed the module, most being female (91%), nurses/midwives (43%), working in children and family services (48%), aged 22 - 62 years. Eight behavioural determinants increased significantly following training, with effect sizes ranging from sizes ranging from 0.27 to 0.51; ‘identity’ did not change. Content analysis of written feedback (n=256) indicates that training enhanced staff behaviour change skills, modelled a productive and specific method of adopting a patient-led approach to behaviour change conversations, and identified that staff may require further support with embedding skills in practice. Conclusions Behaviour change science can be translated into useful learning for NHS staff. Online training can engage staff in learning about behaviour change skills and increase their behavioural determinants to adopt these skills in practice.

The impact of Healthy Conversation Skills training on health professionals’ barriers to having behaviour change conversations: a pre-post survey using the Theoretical Domains Framework

“…This is consistent with previous research [ 2 , 18 – 20 ] suggesting that training targeting cross-disciplinary barriers and enablers could be an efficient capacity-building strategy to support health professionals from different disciplines to use person-centred approaches [ 2 ]. Our findings that the domains of social/professional role and identity, and beliefs about consequences are enablers align with some previous findings [ 2 , 34 ] that health professionals in a variety of clinical and non-clinical roles perceive it as their role to support clients to make behaviour changes, and believe that having these conversations could improve their clients’ health.…”

“…Additional file 1 demonstrates how a range of behaviour change techniques underpin the training and are intended to facilitate changes including those seen in the TDF domains. More broadly, current findings improve our understanding on how behaviour change communication training aligned with the theoretical determinants of their own behaviour, and can increase health professionals likelihood to engage in behaviour change conversations with their clients [ 34 ].…”

Patients' experiences of behaviour change interventions delivered by general practitioners during routine consultations: A nationally representative survey

“…Our findings show that smokers (compared with non‐smokers) and people exceeding alcohol guidelines (compared with those who are not) were more likely to report receiving a behaviour change intervention during their last GP visit. However, the skills required to deliver behaviour change interventions opportunistically may not be a part of health‐care professional core training or practice 5,26 ; education and training to deliver interventions must therefore take priority 27 …”

“…However, the skills required to deliver behaviour change interventions opportunistically may not be a part of health-care professional core training or practice 5,26 ; education and training to deliver interventions must therefore take priority. 27 Specific reasons contributing to the likelihood of GPs delivering interventions may include a fear of offending the patient, 28 beliefs that patients lack the motivation for behaviour change 5 and perceptions that patients do not want or need behaviour change interventions. 10,11 Our study suggests that patients (a) are receptive and would welcome a discussion about behaviour change, and (b) where behaviour change was discussed with patients, this was rated favourably by patients, even in cases of less personally relevant health behaviours.…”

Translation and application of an obesity behavior change technique training in a Spanish nursing undergraduate setting

“…As data were not normally distributed, the Wilcoxon sign rank test was used to investigate pre to post education changes. Effect size was calculated with r = Z/√N of Rosenthal 25 , which identified effect size as small (r < 0.20), medium (0.20-0.50), or large (0.50-0.80). The SPSS program (version 24) was used to analyze data.…”