Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischer Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Thomas J. Thompson
Committee Member
Susan Torbenson
Committee Member
Maryellen Maher
Keywords
adult education, behavior change, clinicians, commitment to change, content analysis, control groups, counseling, educational activities, experimental groups, follow-up surveys, health care professionals, health education, health promotion, implementation rates, intervention programs, learner controlled instruction, medical education, practice behavior, professional education, program objectives, randomized controlled study, self-reported outcomes, smoking, smoking cessation, tobacco cessation interventions, tobacco users, workshop evaluation, workshops, women
Abstract
Continuing medical education for health care professionals has been found to be ineffective in motivating clinicians to change their practice behaviors. Employing the commitment to change model, learners in a workshop or educational activity write 3-5 statements regarding areas that they intend to change in their practices as a result of the workshop or educational information. Follow-up after such educational activities indicate this activity elicits a positive outcome. This study tested the commitment to change model after a 1-day workshop on smoking cessation interventions for women. The workshop was attended by clinicians interested in providing intervention for tobacco users.
Participants were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. At the conclusion of the workshop, the experimental group received a survey in which they wrote 3 statements of commitments to change their practice behavior. The control group received a survey asking them to write 3 suggestions for next years’ workshop. Fifty individuals agreed to participate, 25 in the control group and 25 in the experimental group.
Content analysis of predicate phrases and terminology was employed to compare CTC statements with program objectives. Sixty-seven statements (79%) contained predicate phrases or terminology corresponding to workshop objectives. Most statements indicated intent to increase or change cessation counseling (49%).
A follow-up survey was e-mailed 30 days after the workshop. Respondents in both the control and the experimental groups indicated that they highly implemented change in tobacco cessation interventions. There was no significant difference in the self-reported implementation rate between the experimental group and the control group (p = .05). This study found no difference in the control and experimental groups.