Motivational interviewing education for home visiting asthma nurses

Abstract

Montana Asthma Program (MAP) nurses currently do not receive motivational interviewing (MI) training and have identified it as an area of development. The desired outcome for this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) scholarly project is to positively affect MAP nurses' knowledge of MI strategies and theories and self-efficacy, or each nurses' belief that they can successfully execute behaviors necessary to produce an MI therapeutic interaction. A brief MI training to increase MI knowledge and self-efficacy of the MAP nurse by 1) attendance of a three-hour asthma-focused MI foundational training course and 2) triad of patient-nurse-recorder role-playing using MI foundations. Content was delivered using PowerPoint slides and lectures with integrated use of role-playing as skills and principles are introduced. A tool used in a previous study by Pyle (2015) was identified as an appropriate self-assessment of self-efficacy and knowledge after completing MI training. Nurses completed this assessment pre and immediately post-training as well as seven months after the educational intervention to see if there was a change. Knowledge question scores ranged from pre-test 3.5 to 2.3 (n = 9) M = 3.05, (SD = 0.33); post-test scores ranged from 3.4 to 3.7 (n = 9) M = 3.57, (SD = .09); and post-test seven-month scores ranged from 3.5 to 3.8 (n = 6) M = 3.6, (SD = 0.07). Self-efficacy question scores ranged from pre-test 2.6 to 3.6 (n = 9) M = 3.21, (SD = 0.37); post-test scores ranged from 3.4 to 3.8 (n = 9) M = 3.62, (SD = .14); and post-test seven-month scores ranged from 3.4 to 4.0 (n = 6) M = 3.67, (S = .18). Knowledge score improvements suggest education retention of background concepts and theories related to MI (Bailey et. al, 2017). Of particular interest is the increase in scores between the post-test and post-test seven-month assessments. The overall increase of mean scores, from pre-test, post-test, and post-seven-month tests indicates an increase in the understanding and self-efficacy of the nurses as it is related to their MI knowledge and use as a communication style.