Objective: To explore medical professionals' and trainees' experiences and views of behavior change talk in various health care settings to develop current understanding of the challenges that underlie this phenomenon.
Methods: Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with medical professionals and trainees (n=29). Grounded theory principles informed sampling, data collection and analysis. To achieve maximum variance, participants with different levels of experience were purposively sampled from a range of primary and secondary care settings. Analysis was iterative, involving a constant comparative approach allowing emergent ideas to be tested in subsequent interviews until thematic saturation was reached.
Results: Three emergent themes described reasons for not engaging in behavior change talk with patients: (1) 'personal challenges'; (2) 'somebody else's responsibility' and (3) 'prioritizing the doctor-patient relationship'.
Conclusion: Despite increasingly being recognized as a core aspect of medical practice and education, medical professionals and trainees remain unprepared to discuss health-related behavior change with patients and unclear of their roles within contemporary health care.
Practice implications: Formal training in theory-based behavior change techniques is likely to help empower doctors and mitigate many of the barriers found, particularly in relation to socially and emotionally uncomfortable topics that are perceived to threaten the doctor-patient relationship.
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