Behavior change in diabetes practitioners: An intervention using motivation, action planning and prompts

It is important for health professionals to have behavior change skills to empower people to manage long-term-conditions. Theoretically derived, competency-based training can be particularly effective where it considers reflective and automatic routes to behavior change. The aim of this study was to develop, deliver and evaluate a motivational, action and prompting behavior change skills intervention for diabetes health practitioners in Scotland, UK.

This was a longitudinal intervention study. A 2-day intervention was delivered to 99 health professionals. Participants set behavioral goals to change practice, completing action and coping plans post-training. Motivation and plan quality were evaluated in relation to goal achievement at 6-week follow-up.

Post-training, practitioners could develop high quality work-related action and coping plans, which they were motivated to enact. Although under half responded at follow-up, most reported successful goal achievement. There was no difference in plan quality for goal achievers, non-achievers and non-responders. Barriers and facilitators of behavior change included institutional, service-user and individual factors.

The intervention successfully used planning to implement participants' behaviour change goals.

Planning interventions are helpful to support clinicians to change their practice to help people self-manage diabetes care but may not fit demands of day-to-day clinical practice.