Helping patients change a behavior requires patient-centered care skills and knowledge of disease prevention and treatment. During the next six weeks, you will demonstrate your ability to integrate the patient-centered care skill of motivational interviewing with your knowledge around the treatment or prevention of a particular disease in the care of a single patient.

In the first two weeks of the clerkship, you should identify a patient who is contemplating a behavior change. With this patient, you will need to apply the motivational interviewing techniques you learned in your preclinical courses and reviewed in the Case for Change online module. Motivational interviewing uses many of the same skills found in patient-centered care: the patient's agenda is given priority, open-ended questions, reflections and empathetic statements are used, and active listening is key. As you develop a plan with your patient you will counsel him or her regarding best treatments and interventions for their condition. Once you and your patient have decided on a plan, you will need to continue to advise, support and assist the patient as he or she attempts to make the behavior change.

Weeks 1-3:

• Complete the Case for Change online learning module.
• Read Motivational Interviewing in Health Care Settings: Opportunities and Limitations
• Interview patients about their health behaviors and select a patient who is in the contemplative phase of behavior change.
• Using the interview techniques you learned from the Case for Change, develop a behavior change plan with patient and present your plan to patient’s primary care physician before the patient leaves the clinic.
• Review the section in the Patient Centered Observation form on health behavior change to assess your interaction with the patient.

Weeks 4-6:

• Follow-up with the patient, weekly if possible, either in person or by phone to track their progress. You will need to continue using the interview skills you have learned to help the patient rediscover or maintain their motivation to change.
• Present a final summary of the patient’s progress to their primary care physician.