For all health care staff, every interaction

with a patient or client is an opportunity

to promote health and prevent illness
(RCN 2012).
The NHS Future Forum report (2012) states that “Every healthcare
professional should use every contact with an individual to help them
maintain or improve their mental and physical health and well-being;
in particular targeting the four main lifestyle risk factors; diet, physical
activity, alcohol and tobacco – whatever their speciality or the purpose
of the contact”. This is the basis of the Making Every Contact
Count initiative in England.

Motivational interviewing
Motivational interviewing (MI) is an empathetic and supportive
counselling style that encourages and strengthens a client's motivation
for change. For more information around MI and its co-founder,
see Stephen Rollnick.

Research shows that motivational interviewing techniques lead to

greater participation in treatment and more positive treatment
outcomes. This makes motivational interviewing an excellent tool for
using with MECC.

This module will give you an overview of motivational interviewing and

will provide you with a 'change toolkit' to use when discussing change
with your clients. It will also sign-post you to other resources should
you wish to know more about MI and MECC.

Who is this learning for?

This learning area is relevant to all registered nurses, student nurses,

health care assistants (HCAs) and assistant practitioners working in
any health care setting or specialism. The aim is to give you an
overview of motivational interviewing and provide you with a tool-kit
of techniques that you can start to use immediately.

Learning outcomes
After completing all the sections and activities in this resource, the
learner should be able to:

 be aware of motivational interviewing and why it is effective

 know how to initiate a conversation with their client around health
care and lifestyle issues
 understand why it is important to gauge a client's attitude to
change
 signpost their clients to more information or support
 understand why they feel frustrated when client's do not change
 recognise the limits of what they can achieve with their clients.