Module Title: Promoting Health
Module Coordinator: Mary Murphy
Word Count: 1750
Actual Word Count: 1894

Introduction Motivational interviewing may be defined as “a collaborative, goal-oriented style of communication with particular attention to the language of change. It is designed to strengthen personal motivation for and commitment to a specific goal by eliciting and exploring the person’s own reasons for change within an atmosphere of acceptance and compassion” (Miller and Rollnick 2012). It is this students aim to demonstrate an understanding of this concept. This will be achieved by critiquing a digital recording of a case scenario that this student previously recorded. Throughout this essay an
This in turn helps the patient to define their own problem and therefore can develop a unique solution which leaves little time to resist. In other words, the nurse through guidance and support avoids the ‘righting reflex’, he/she lets the patient express their problem and concern and with guidance, construct a solution while making sure the patient understands the motives for change. Towards the end of the digital recording we can hear ‘change talk’, the patient states “I know smoking is bad”, I feel I did guide the patient better towards the end eventually getting a deeper insight to her situation and felt a sense of achievement. Understand your patient motivations: In order for the patient to want to change for his/her own benefit, the motivational interviewer must understand the patients motivations. The purpose of MI is that motivation must come from within the patient (Rollinick et al 2008). In other words as nurses we should not motivate our patients; we help them to seek their own unique motivation factor as the patient’s own reasons for change are most likely to trigger change (Miller and Rollinick, 2002). As nurses, we help the patient recognise where they are and where they want to be. It is important for the patient themselves to recognise the discrepancies that already exist and how their behaviour impacts their goal. Miller and Rollinick (2002) describe how a patient may very well