Behaviour change, the itchy spot of healthcare quality improvement: How can psychology theory and skills help to scratch the itch?

Abstract

Despite the clear utility and transferability, National Health Service (NHS) quality improvement initiatives have yet to benefit fully from what is already known within health psychology. Thus far, evidence from established, seminal behaviour change theory and practice have been ignored in favour of newly developed models and frameworks. Further, whilst there is a growing interest in what is commonly referred to as ‘human factors’ of change and improvement, there is scant transferability of known psychologically informed implementation skills into routine NHS Improvement practice. The science and practice of healthcare improvement is growing, and the behaviour change aspect is critical to sustainable outcomes. Therefore, this paper offers practical guidance on how seminal psychological behaviour change theory and motivational interviewing (a person-centred skills-based approach specifically developed to support people through change) can be combined to better address individual and organisational change within a healthcare improvement context.