A Focused Ethnography of Baccalaureate Nursing Students Who Are Using Motivational Interviewing

The purpose of this article is to describe how nursing students learned and used motivational interviewing (MI) in a community-based clinical context at a primary care vascular risk reduction clinic focused on health promotion.

A focused ethnography was used to access a sample of 20 undergraduate nursing students, 16 patients, and 2 instructors. Data were generated from participant observations, field notes, student journals, and interviews (one-on-one and focus group).

Central to the students' experience was their transformation because of learning and using MI. Three sub themes describe the social processes that shaped the student experience: learning a relational skill, engaging patients, and collaborating as partners.

It is feasible for nursing students to learn MI and use this approach to enhance collaborative care in a primary care setting. The experience can be transformative for students.

Supporting patients to adopt healthy lifestyles is a significant role for nurses in practice. The findings provide key insights and strategies for nurse educators teaching students a collaborative communication approach, such as MI, to engage patients in health behavior change.