Purpose: The purpose of the research was to determine the connection between practicing motivational interviewing (MI) and the well-being in MI practitioners at the primary health care level, and for this purpose to develop and validate a self-assessment questionnaire about the practicing the MI.
Methods: The questionnaire was developed on the basis of a literature study, and its contents were validated using the method of expert panels, where the data were analyzed by calculating the validity indices and the coefficient of chance agreement. The comprehensibility of the tool was additionally verified by cognitive testing and piloting of the questionnaire on a sample of potential respondents – practitioners of MI-based alcohol screening and brief intervention in the pilot of the national project (MI practitioners). Psychometric properties were tested on the entire population of MI practitioners. Reliability was tested with the value of the coefficient of internal consistency, dimensionality or and construct validity with exploratory factor analysis. The evaluation of the views of MI practitioners on the connection of MI with the well-being of the practitioners was carried out using the focus group method on a sample of MI practitioners that were health workers. Data analysis was performed using the constant comparative method. We assessed the association between the practice of MI and well-being on the same subpopulation of MI practitioners. Data analysis was performed by calculating correlation coefficients and linear regression.
Results: We successfully validated the content and defined the psychometric properties of the questionnaire, which had 23 items and a 6-point scale. We called it the Self-Assessment Questionnaire on practicing the MI. In the focus groups, MI practitioners reported the usefulness of MI for the patient and the practitioner, as well as the positive impact of performing MI on their own well-being, and they particularly emphasized the importance of sharing responsibility and avoiding the righting reflex. A positive correlation between practicing MI and the well-being of the practitioners was also shown in a survey on the population of health care MI practitioners, namely among registered nurses.
Conclusion: The questionnaire shows adequate content validity and psychometric properties and offers a good starting point for the further development of more practical ways of evaluating the practicing of MI. The conducted research on the connection between the practicing of MI and the practitioners' well-being expands the research focus on the practitioners and can also serve to increase the motivation of health workers to implement MI in their work.
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