Three Strategies for Implementing Motivational Interviewing on Medical Inpatient Units

Summary

General medical hospitals provide care for a disproportionate share of patients who misuse substances. Motivational interviewing (MI) is a well-recognized, evidenced-based substance use treatment. However, it is unclear which implementation strategies lead to the efficient and proficient uptake of MI in general medical settings, such as medical inpatient units. Because medical providers have multiple practice demands and time constraints, new practices have the greatest chance of being implemented if they are simple and compatible with existing workflows and systems. Two widely used strategies to bring specialized practices into use within general hospital settings are the apprenticeship model of training and use of consultation-liaison (CL) services. The apprenticeship model requires that appropriate patients and trainers are available with high flexibility for teaching and supervision; when applied to behavioral counseling approaches, this model may be incompatible with the providers' medical role and time constraints. In contrast, ordering MI through CL is relatively simple, minimally burdensome, and highly compatible with the way clinicians secure other specialist services for their patients in the hospital. This cluster randomized controlled trial examines the effectiveness of three different strategies for integrating MI into the practice of medical providers working within an academically affiliated internal medicine hospitalist service. Specifically, the trial randomizes 38 healthcare providers to one of three conditions: (1) a continuing medical education workshop that provides background and "shows" healthcare providers how to conduct MI (the control condition, called SEE ONE); (2) a "see one, do one" apprenticeship model involving workshop training plus live supervision of bedside practice (DO ONE); and (3) ordering MI from CL after learning about it in a workshop (ORDER ONE). Following the respective MI trainings, each healthcare provider will be assessed for the provision of MI to 40 study-eligible inpatients, recruited by the research team after admission to our general medical units. Trial hypotheses are 1) the percentage of MI sessions delivered by providers to study-eligible inpatients will be higher in both Do One and Order One than See One, and 2) providers in both Do One and Order One will conduct MI sessions with greater integrity than those in See One. This study is an implementation trial examining provider, not patient, outcomes.

Conditions

• See One
• Do One
• Order One

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

See One

A 1-day workshop conducted by a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT), according to MINT recommendations, to build providers' skills needed to use MI with patients who misuse substances.

BEHAVIORAL

Do One

A 1-day workshop conducted by a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT), according to MINT recommendations, to build providers' skills needed to use MI with patients who misuse substances. Following the workshop training, providers conduct two motivational interviews bedside with patients under the supervision of one of the MI-trained CL clinicians, who subsequently give them performance feedback and coaching. Providers receive one more supervised practice case mid-trial. In addition, they can request additional supervision at any point during the trial.

BEHAVIORAL

Order One

A 1-day workshop conducted by a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT), according to MINT recommendations, to build providers' skills needed to use MI with patients who misuse substances. Following the workshop, providers have the option to conduct MI with patients themselves or to "order" a MI for delivery by one of the MI-trained CL clinicians.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

  lead NIH

Principal Investigators

• Steve Martino, Ph.D. · Yale University

• Kimberly A Yonkers, MD · Yale University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

100 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2013-02-21

Primary Completion

2018-11-19

Completion

2019-04-25

Countries

• United States

Study Locations