Motivational interviewing to facilitate goal setting in rehabilitation: a feasibility study

To investigate the feasibility of using embedded motivational interviewing (MI) to develop patient-centred goals in rehabilitation.

Sixty adults (mean age 68 years, 60% female) referred with any health condition for community rehabilitation and four MI trained clinicians participated to inform feasibility of embedding motivational interviewing in goal setting to facilitate patient-centred discussions. Feasibility domains of acceptability, demand, implementation (including MI fidelity), practicality and limited efficacy were evaluated.

Over the 14-month recruitment period, 70 patients were eligible and 60 agreed to participate (86% uptake). Patient participants reported high levels of acceptance (median 10/10, IQR 9 to 10) and identified a median of 2 (IQR 2 to 4) patient-centred goals, of which 69% were achieved at discharge. MI goal setting took a median of 20 mins (IQR 17 to 24) and most commonly occurred during the second rehabilitation session (n = 28, 47%). There were no adverse events and no instances where goal setting was incomplete. Clinicians proficiently integrated MI into clinical practice and supported the application of MI within routine rehabilitation goal setting.

Integrating motivational interviewing into rehabilitation goal setting was a feasible way to elicit patient-centred goals, which were accepted by patients and rehabilitation clinicians.