As Ireland’s health care system is evolving on a daily basis so too is the role of a nurse. The role of a nurse is progressing into the area of health promotion. Nurses are in a “unique position to not only accommodate change, but to also help patients endure the path to change (Dart, M 2010)”. The Ottawa Charter for health promotion was established in 1986, a guide for health care professionals that would ultimately improve the overall health of our nation by the year 2000. It primarily focused on prevention as well as directing focus on the current problems of our country. For this reason, integrating motivational interviewing into nursing practice is essential for the promotion of behavioural change.
Motivational interviewing incorporates
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Through effective engagement with the patient it can instil a sense of connection and in turn the patient will actively participate throughout the interview. Effectively engaging is ultimately the foundation for motivational interviewing. In order for patients to feel connected and comfortable, nurses must be open minded, compassionate as well as providing reassurance in order to create relaxed environment for patients to voice both positive and negative feelings in relation to behavioural change (Resnicow, K & Blackburn. D …show more content…
O.A.R.S skills are based on communication techniques which facilitates engagement (Miller & Rollnick, 2002). Throughout the interview, the use of open ended questions were applied although not effectively as I did not focus specifically on the subject which needed to be addressed. Take for example, I asked the patient “you were smoking a couple of years ago and then gave up or…”, I then asked the patient “do you think you could do something else besides smoking to deal with stress?” and then went on to ask the patient “are you communicating with your wife? Are you staying at home?”. Although I used open ended questions, I feel I should have focused on the specific subject and even though reflective listening and understanding the patient's dilemma is important aspects of engaging also, I should have emphasized the positive and asked the patient “so you stayed off cigarettes for four years, how were you able to stay off them for that long?”. This applied the use of open-ended questions but it focused on the specific topic. As well as the use of open-ended questions and affirming, reflection and summaries are also essential. However, throughout my motivational interview I did not apply these two key skills. With the use of these two skills, it would have added meaning and emphasis on the unspoken context