Motivational Interviewing & Nursing

From inpatient to outpatient to community nursing, health promotion and patient education are core nursing interventions. Motivational interviewing is a clinical communication skill that nurses can develop to elicit patients' personal motivations for changing behavior to promote health. Nurses can then emphasize these factors in their teaching to help patients modify their behavior

Motivational interviewing is an evidenced-based counseling approach that health care providers can use to help patients adhere to treatment recommendations. It emphasizes using a directive, patient-centered style of interaction to promote behavioral change by helping patients explore and resolve ambivalence. 

Motivational interviewing can help people improve their lifestyles but nurses need to understand its principles to spot opportunities to encourage this.

The primary healthcare nurses’ experiences with motivational interviewing as a method of health promotion practice demonstrate that motivational interviewing is a demanding, enriching and useful method that promotes awareness and guidance in the care relationship. The results also show that motivational interviewing is a valuable tool for primary healthcare nurses’ health promotion practice.

The nurses experienced that openness to the approach and an encouraging working climate are required to overcome internal resistance and to increase use of motivational interviewing. They also experienced mutual benefit: motivational interviewing elicits and develops abilities in both nurses and patients. For the nurses using it, motivational interviewing is perceived to facilitate work with patients in need of lifestyle change.

Acquiring proficiency in motivational interviewing may be more difficult

than generally believed, and training research suggests that the standard one-time workshop

format may be insufficient. Although nurses represent one of the professions that have

received most training in MI, training in this group has rarely been systematically evaluated

using objective behavioral measures.

The report aims to provide best practices on how to discuss food insecurity and related issues with patients in a sensitive manner.

The nursing skill of “motivational interviewing” can be applied to conversations with these policymakers.

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