Patient education and health promotion are core nursing interventions. Motivational interviewing (MI) is a communication skill used to elicit and emphasize a client’s personal motivation for modifying behavior to promote health. MI has been effectively used for several health issues such as smoking cessation, diabetes, substance use disorders, and adherence to a treatment plan.^[1]

The spirit of motivational interviewing is a collaborative partnership between nurses and clients, focused on patient-centered care, autonomy, and personal responsibility. It is a technique that explores a client’s motivation, confidence, and roadblocks to change. During motivational interviewing, nurses pose questions, actively listen to client responses, and focus on where the client is now with a current health behavior and where they want to be in the future.^[2]

Motivational interviewing uses these principles^[3]:

• Express empathy. Use reflective listening to convey acceptance and a nonjudgmental attitude. Rephrase client comments to convey active listening and let clients know they are being heard.
• Highlight discrepancies. Help clients become aware of the gap between their current behaviors and their values and goals. Present objective information that highlights the consequences of continuing their current behaviors to motivate them to change their behavior.
• Adjust to resistance. Adjust to a client’s resistance and do not argue. The client may demonstrate resistance by avoiding eye contact, becoming defensive, interrupting you, or seeming distracted by looking at their watch or cell phone. Arguing can place the client on the defensive and in a position of arguing against the change. Focus on validating the client’s feelings.
• Understand motivations. Uncover a client’s personal reasons for making behavioral changes and build on them.
• Support self-efficacy. Encourage the client’s optimistic belief in the prospect of change and encourage them to commit to positive behavioral changes. Ask clients to elaborate on past successes to build self-confidence and support self-efficacy.
• Resist the reflex to provide advice. Avoid imposing your own perspective and advice.

When implementing motivational interviewing, it is important to assess the client’s readiness for change. Motivational interviewing is especially useful for clients in the contemplation stage who are feeling ambivalent about making change. Recall these five stages of behavioral change^[4]:

• Precontemplation: Not considering change.
• Contemplation: Ambivalent about making change.
• Preparation: Taking steps toward implementing change.
• Action: Actively involved in the change process.
• Maintenance: Sustaining the target behavior.

Identify clients who are ambivalent about making a behavioral change or following a treatment plan by listening for the phrase, “Yes, but.”  The “but” holds the key for opening the conversation about ambivalence. For example, a client may state, “I want to take my medication, but I hate gaining weight.” The content in the sentence after the “but” reveals the client’s personal roadblock to making a change and should be taken into consideration when planning outcomes and interventions.^[5]

See the following box for an example of a nurse using motivational interviewing with a client.