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Interventions in relation to self management are often seen as a way to improve the patient’s quality of care that are having suffering through some chronic illness. In this context, the use behaviour change technique by health care professionals for the purpose of interacting with their patients is important (Omura, et al.., 2017). Behaviour change technique can be defined as a process of active intervention component designed to alter behaviour and the research has been carried out with purpose of addressing the following research question.

·       What is the use of behaviour change technique in interacting with patients in the healthcare sector?

·       To what extent do healthcare professionals use behaviour change technique during their patient interaction?

·       What are the most effective behaviour change techniques during the interaction of health care professionals with their patients?

Research objective is written with the core purpose of driving each step of the research project, involving collection of data analysis as well as conclusion. The objectives of the research also help the researcher in focusing the research on some core variables that can guide the him throughout the process of the research. The objectives for the research have given in the following.

·       To analyze the use of behaviour change technique in interacting with patients in the healthcare sector.

·       To what identify the extent up to which healthcare professionals use behaviour change technique during their patient interaction.

·       To identify the most effective behaviour change techniques during the interaction of health care professionals with their patients.

The following study will investigate the extent up to which healthcare professionals use behaviour change technique during interacting with their patients. Selection of the healthcare professionals for the purpose collecting data relies on several aspects and every participant is expected to have a separate response. Humans perceive The unique responses obtained from the participants will help to provide an overall picture about the topic of discussion. It has been found that previous literature regarding the given research topic was less. Hence it was required to conduct an exploratory research. It is known that exploratory research is specifically conducted when the available information regarding the given topic is not sufficient and further research necessary to explore all the aspects highlighted by the research topic (Chauhan, et al., 2017). Use of exploratory methods has helped in collecting valid and authentic data for the purpose of carrying out the research.

Next, the research has been conducted through use of qualitative methods It should be mentioned that a research can be carried out in one of two main strategies that qualitative and quantitative strategy. Quantitative strategy is applied when the data is available in the form of numbers, tables, charts and graphs. Here, mathematical and statistical analysis is used for the purpose of assessing the collected data. The key words in case of quantitative strategy are measurement, testing objectivity and replicability. The main focus of this theory is to test different existing theories and hypothesis. Further closed ended questions are asked during the interview process when quantitative research is considered.

Contrary to quantitative strategy, in case of qualitative strategy the collected information is mostly articulated in words. In this approach, the participants are only asked open ended questions and the collected data is analyzed through classification, interpreting and summarizing. An important advantage of qualitative research strategy is that less respondents are needed and each of these respondents are asked open ended questions. Contrary to this, in case of quantitative research strategy more respondents are needed. The key words in case of qualitative strategy are strategy, subjectivity, context and complexity. To conduct this research qualitative research strategy has been deemed suitable.

As mentioned previously, qualitative research strategy and exploratory design has been employed for carrying out the research. Exploratory design is particularly used when the available researches regarding the chosen research topic are few and the researches that are available are not up to the mark. This was found to be the case for the given research. Hence, exploratory design was chosen. Further qualitative strategy has helped in facilitating the research. As the present research topic is regarding the extent up to which healthcare professionals use behaviour change technique while interacting with the patients, quantitative data whould not have helped in reaching the desired outcomes successfully (Michie, et al., 2017). Hence qualitative research was done.

Participants

50 healthcare professionals

15 supervisors

15 partially structured interviews

10 focus groups

The research was conducted in ten medical facilities involving both government and private hospitals. Among these five were government health centres whereas five were private health centres. Among these ten selected health centres two government facilities and three private facilities were very popular whereas the rest were comparatively less popular (Atkins, et al, 2017).

Inclusion Criteria

·       Health care professionals with a minimum of two years experience.

·       Health care professionals who have used behaviour change technique during interaction with their patients.

·       Professionals attending to patients on a regular basis.

Exclusion Criteria

·       Healthcare professionals having less than two years of experience.

·       Health care professionals who have not used behaviour change technique during interaction with their patients.

·       Professionals who do not attend to patients on a regular basis.

Sample Size

There will be 15 partially structured interviews and 10 focus groups. In every focus group there should be 4 to 6 participants. The participants who are highly interested shall be included through individual meeting for the purpose of conducting the interviews which will be conducted in the hospitals within their own offices.

Sampling Technique

For the purpose of selecting the focus groups purposive sampling will be used.

Recruitment

The researcher will personally visit the healthcare centres to interview the healthcare professionals. For the purpose of carrying out the research, firstly the suitable focus groups will be selected. After selection of the focus groups a favourable venue and time will be selected to carry out the interviews. The venue and time will be set in a manner such that it is acceptable to both the interviewer and interviewee. Before conducting the interview, further information regarding the research, data collection, contact information of participants etc will be included. Further, before the start of the interview the required information will be provided to the employees. The participants will be given freedom to clear any doubts regarding their process interview. Both participant and interviewer will sign a consent agreement and the participants will be given freedom to change their decision regarding not participating in the interview before the agreement is signed.

Each participant or healthcare professionals will be interviewed in their own offices. All the participants will be briefed about the interview process and will be given a chance to their doubts regarding the process of interview. Next, they will be asked to give their consent about the interview through signing a consent agreement which will be followed by the interview itself. The responses of the questions asked during the interview will be properly recorded for the purpose of assessment at a later time.

Brief of the topic

Behaviour change technique is a systematic process involved as an active component within the intervention that has been specifically designed for the purpose of changing behaviour. Inducing a behaviour change is often needed in case of patients for the purpose of facilitating self- management and self healing in them. To achieve this, behaviour change techniques are utilized by healthcare professionals. The given research analyzes the extent up to which healthcare professionals use behaviour change technique during their patient interaction.

Collection of Data

Collection of data is the most important aspect within a research as it helps in accumulating the information on the basis of which the desired outcomes of the research can be reached. For this research, qualitative primary data has been collected. A sample of 50 healthcare professional belonging to both government and private healthcare centres were interviewed for this purpose (Donner‐Banzhoff, 2018). Their responses regarding the extent upto which they use Behaviour change technique while interacting with their patients were recorded. Physical recordings such as video as well as audio tapes were kept for future reference.

Management of the data

The personal information of the participants will be kept confidential. Only numbers will be used for the purpose of documenting the responses of the participants. After assessment of the data the video and audio tapes will be kept for future use. The relevant files as well as the consent agreement will be kept in a confidential file. The person who will conduct the interview will be a representative within the research team.

Data Analysis

The analysis of the collected data has been done through utilizing thematic content analysis. Some reliable strategies for analysis of data has been used such credibility, conformability, transferability and dependability The data will be transcribed, gathered and validated. Validation of the data will be done within a time period of 48 hours to make sure that no data gets missed. The collected data will be properly refined and the results will be presented.

Benefits and limitations

Data will be collected through interviewing 50 healthcare professionals. Hence, suitable amount of data will be revealed from the interview that will help in providing an in-depth knowledge about the research topic. However, huge amount of data poses the limitation and risk of loss of confidentiality. In this regard it should be made sure that no outside person gets involved in handling the collected data and in case this happens, the outside person will be talked outside the group.

Participant Privacy

Alphabets and numbers will be used during the process of recording the responses of the participants to keep their personal information confidential. This means that all participants will be marked by a number within 1 – 50 during data collection.

Withdrawal from investigation

Participants can avoid participating in the research. However, this should be done before signing the consent agreement. In case of withdraw from investigation; the personal information of the participant will be destroyed.

Distress possibility

Healthcare professionals may get bored or emotional while conveying information of the extent up to which the behaviour change technique their patient interaction (C.S., et al., 2017). However, the interviewer are adequately trained to handle such situation and keep the participant engaged.

Ethical responsibility

Ethical clearance will be obtained from the board of directors of each of the selected hospitals. The healthcare professional who has already signed the consent agreement must be present during the interview.

Reference

Michie, S., West, R., Sheals, K. and Godinho, C.A., 2018. Evaluating the effectiveness of behavior change techniques in health-related behavior: a scoping review of methods used. Translational Behavioral Medicine, 8(2), pp.212-224.

Omura, M., Maguire, J., Levett-Jones, T. and Stone, T.E., 2017. The effectiveness of assertiveness communication training programs for healthcare professionals and students: A systematic review. International journal of nursing studies, 76, pp.120-128.

Chauhan, B.F., Jeyaraman, M., Mann, A.S., Lys, J., Skidmore, B., Sibley, K.M., Abou-Setta, A. and Zarychanksi, R., 2017. Behavior change interventions and policies influencing primary healthcare professionals’ practice—an overview of reviews. Implementation Science, 12(1), pp.1-16.

Michie, S., Yardley, L., West, R., Patrick, K. and Greaves, F., 2017. Developing and evaluating digital interventions to promote behavior change in health and health care: recommendations resulting from an international workshop. Journal of medical Internet research, 19(6), p.e7126.

Atkins, L., Francis, J., Islam, R., O’Connor, D., Patey, A., Ivers, N., Foy, R., Duncan, E.M., Colquhoun, H., Grimshaw, J.M. and Lawton, R., 2017. A guide to using the Theoretical Domains Framework of behaviour change to investigate implementation problems. Implementation Science, 12(1), pp.1-18.

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