Original Article
Teaching Motivational Interviewing to First-Year Medical Students to Improve Counseling Skills in Health Behavior Change

https://doi.org/10.4065/79.3.327Get rights and content

Objective

To examine the effectiveness of motivational interviewing training on improving medical students’ knowledge of and confidence in their ability to counsel patients regarding health behavior change.

Subjects and Methods

In the spring of 2002, 42 first-year medical students participated in a counseling course on health behavior change. Three small groups focused on learning and practicing motivational interviewing techniques using brief lectures, interactive class activities, student role-plays, and simulated patients. Students completed an identical precourse and postcourse questionnaire that measured their confidence and knowledge regarding counseling skills in health behavior change.

Results

The medical students reported improved confidence in their understanding of motivational interviewing after participation in the course (very confident, 77%) compared with before the course (very confident, 2%). Each of the 8 confidence items were compared before and after the course using a signed rank test. All comparisons indicated a significant improvement (P<.001) in confidence. Regarding knowledge-based questions, students showed significant improvement; 31% of students answered all the questions correctly before the course, and 56% answered all the questions correctly after the course (P=.004).

Conclusion

These results show that teaching motivational interviewing techniques to first-year medical students can enhance student confidence in and knowledge of providing counseling to patients regarding health behavior change.

Section snippets

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

The Health Behavior Change Counseling course was designed to begin with a short didactic presentation followed by interactive learning techniques, such as group exercises and role-plays, used to build and refine MI skills. The entire first-year Mayo Medical School class (42 students) participated in the Health Behavior Change Counseling course in the spring of 2002. The course, which consisted of 5 two-hour sessions, was held toward the end of the first academic year in conjunction with the

RESULTS

Of the 42 first-year medical students who participated in the course, 6 did not complete the postcourse questionnaire. We summarized and compared the precourse to postcourse changes in item responses for the students who completed the questionnaire at both time points.

Each of the 8 confidence items were compared before and after the course using a signed rank test. All of the 5 response categories were included in this test. Response categories were coded 1 to 5 for “very not confident” to

DISCUSSION

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of MI counseling skills training on medical students’ ratings of confidence in and knowledge of health behavior change strategies. We found that participation in 5 small group sessions that used didactic teaching, role-play with simulated patients, and direct faculty feedback significantly improved medical students’ self-reported confidence level in providing counseling to patients and significantly improved their knowledge of MI counseling

CONCLUSION

Participation in the Health Behavior Change Counseling course significantly improved first-year medical students’ confidence in and understanding of MI counseling techniques. We hope that our students’ newly acquired communication skills will translate into patient health behavior change and ultimately disease prevention.

REFERENCES (15)

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This work was funded in part from grant R25 CA86421 from the National Cancer Institute.

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