A staged-based approach to helping people change health behaviors

Helping people change health-related behavior is a challenging part of CNS responsibilities. Behavior change is a cyclic phenomena where people progress through the typical stages of precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and, if not successful in changing behavior, relapse. Several interventions are available to assist people with health behavior change, in addition to the typical education that CNSs provide. Appropriate nursing interventions for each change stage that assist people to change health behaviors successfully are described in this article.