Patient Interviewing Skills

Patient Interviewing Skills

"Communication skills designed specifically for healthcare professionals" 

As healthcare professionals, you aim at improved patient health outcomes. However, it is not unusual to see patients who do not adhere to the prescribed medication regimen or make necessary changes to their life style habits for the management of chronic diseases. The changes in life style habits often expected of patients with chronic diseases include engaging in healthier eating habits, quitting or cutting back on smoking/drinking, engaging in physical activity, losing weight, etc. Motivational interviewing (MI) is an evidence-based patient counseling approach to have a positive influence on your patients’ health decisions [1].

How does your learning MI benefit your patients?

Numerous studies have supported the effectiveness of MI in influencing patients' health decisions in a positive way and its therapeutic value in improving patient health outcomes. MI has been used for increasing patient adherence to healthcare providers’ recommendations for various problems including:

• Non-adherence to medication regimen [2, 3]
• Excess weight/Obesity [4]
• Lack of physical activity/exercise [5]
• Smoking [6, 7]
• Drinking (alcoholism)/substance abuse [8-10]
• Cancer screening [11, 12]

How could learning MI impact your career as a healthcare professional?

The manner in which providers (healthcare professionals) share information with patients is crucial because it influences patients' perceptions of the healthcare professional, which in turn affects patients' health decisions (in terms of following the providers' recommendations).

A study by Villaume & Krishna [13] suggested that physicians who offered MI counseling to patients were perceived to possess greater medical expertise or knowledge than physicians who offered traditional counseling. Additionally, physicians who offered MI counseling were judged as significantly more caring, trustworthy and helpful compared to physicians who offered traditional counseling. Also, patients' likelihood of revisiting the physician who offered MI counseling was judged significantly greater than the physician who offered traditional counseling.

References

1.         Rollnick, S., W.R. Miller, and C. Butler, Motivational interviewing in health care: helping patients change behavior. 2008: The Guilford Press.

2.         Berger, B.A., H. Liang, and K.S. Hudmon, Evaluation of software-based telephone counseling to enhance medication persistency among patients with multiple sclerosis. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, 2005. 45(4): p. 466-472.

3.         Golin, C.E., et al., A 2-arm, randomized, controlled trial of a motivational interviewing-based intervention to improve adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) among patients failing or initiating ART. JAIDS Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, 2006. 42(1): p. 42.

4.         MacDonell, K., et al., A Pilot Study of Motivational Interviewing Targeting Weight-Related Behaviors in Overweight or Obese African American Adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 2011.

5.         Kinmonth, A.L., et al., Efficacy of a theory-based behavioural intervention to increase physical activity in an at-risk group in primary care (ProActive UK): a randomised trial. The Lancet, 2008. 371(9606): p. 41-48.

6.         Soria, R., et al., A randomised controlled trial of motivational interviewing for smoking cessation. The British Journal of General Practice, 2006. 56(531): p. 768.

7.         Wakefield, M., et al., Motivational interviewing as a smoking cessation intervention for patients with cancer: randomized controlled trial. Nursing research, 2004. 53(6): p. 396.

8.         Bien, T.H., W.R. Miller, and J.M. Boroughs, Motivational interviewing with alcohol outpatients. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 1993. 21(4): p. 347-356.

9.         Bien, T.H., W.R. Miller, and J.S. Tonigan, Brief interventions for alcohol problems: a review. Addiction, 1993. 88(3): p. 315-336.

10.       Miller, W.R., R.G. Benefield, and J.S. Tonigan, Enhancing motivation for change in problem drinking: A controlled comparison of two therapist styles. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1993. 61(3): p. 455-461.

11.       Ludman, E.J., et al., Implementation of outreach telephone counseling to promote mammography participation. Health education & behavior, 1999. 26(5): p. 689.

12.       Taplin, S.H., et al., Testing reminder and motivational telephone calls to increase screening mammography: a randomized study. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2000. 92(3): p. 233.

13.       Villaume, W.A. and Krishna, A., An Initial Validation of the Two Dimensional Theory of Motivational Interviewing. Unpublished manuscript, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA, 2012.