Implementation of Motivational Interviewing in a Multidisciplinary HIV Clinic in an Academic Medical Setting

PURPOSE: People living with HIV (PLWH) struggle with medication adherence. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) requires greater than 95% adherence to prevent HIV drug resistance and treatment failure. Motivational interviewing (MI) is an effective counseling method designed to enhance health behavior change. This project determined the effectiveness of a two-day introductory MI training course on participant MI knowledge, perception of MI effectiveness, perception of client behavior change, and likelihood of MI use in a Midwest outpatient HIV clinic. SUBJECTS: Seven clinical and non-clinical members of the multidisciplinary care team completed the two-day MI training course. Approximately 82% of the participants had never used MI previously. Methods and Materials: A one-group, pretest-posttest design using the Motivational Interviewing Survey was used. Analysis: Data analysis included descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test for matched pairs, and Kendall’s tau rank correlation coefficient. RESULTS: Forty-one percent of the multidisciplinary care team participated in the MI educational intervention. There was a significant change in the MI Survey score after completion of the training course (Mdn D = 13.00, Z = -2.375, p = .018). All seven participants reported that they would use MI in their daily work after attending MI training. IMPACT: These findings suggested that a two-day introductory MI course was effective in improving MI knowledge, perception of MI effectiveness, perception of behavior change, and likelihood of MI use. The findings from the MI Survey and the implementation process contributed sustainability recommendations to use MI to promote ART adherence within this practice setting