Topic 2: What are some key elements in motivating patients improve health behaviors and outcomes? What role does the family play?

Topic 2: What are some key elements in motivating patients improve health behaviors and outcomes? What role does the family play?

Some key elements that can be utilized in motivating patients to improve their health behaviors include detecting the motivational needs of patients and what leads to noncompliance, relying on patient-provider communication, motivational interviewing, providing incentives to patients to drive patient motivation and using specific techniques such as health applications.

Healthcare providers should therefore establish ways of determining non-compliant patients who might not be motivated to adopt certain healthy behaviors. Different signs of noncompliance in patients include a history of noncompliance, limited patient support network, a lifestyle that is not conducive to compliance, and a lack of trust between the patient and provider (McCarron et al., 2019). A patient’s family can therefore play a significant role in enhancing compliance by providing an adequate support network, enhancing a conducive environment that promotes compliance. Healthcare practitioners can also rely on motivational interviewing to encourage patients to adopt healthy behaviors. This would include asking open-ended questions to patients, and applying reflective listening, and providing feedback and affirmations to patients during different parts of their wellness journey (McCarron et al., 2019).

References

Darling-Hammond, L., Flook, L., Cook-Harvey, C., Barron, B., & Osher, D. (2019). Implications for educational practice of the science of learning and development. Applied Developmental Science, 24(2), 97–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2018.1537791