Development and validation of INTENSS, a need-supportive training for nurses to support patients' self-management

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Chronic Illness Management
• Self-Management Support

Background:

• Increasing chronic illness prevalence necessitates improved nursing support for patient self-management.
• Current nursing training inadequately addresses the competencies required for effective self-management support.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically develop and validate a need-supportive training program for nurses in self-management support.

Main Methods:

• A three-phased study involving literature review, practice analysis, needs assessment, intervention development (INTENSS), and validation.
• The INTENSS training, grounded in Self-Determination Theory and the 5A's-Model, included basic and video-interaction modules.
• The intervention was tested with nurses, nursing students, and social healthcare workers, with feedback used for iterative adaptation.

Main Results:

• Nurses' current self-management support practices were limited and medically focused, highlighting a training need.
• The developed INTENSS training was theory-driven, multifaceted, and addressed attitude, knowledge, skills, and reflection.
• Participants found the training supportive of their basic psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence.

Conclusions:

• The INTENSS training program was successfully developed as a multifaceted, need-supportive intervention.
• The training effectively addressed the identified needs of participants in providing self-management support.