The effect of Motivational Interviewing training on students' counseling skills and confidence

Abstract: Purpose: Unhealthy behaviors and bad habits are some of the major problems modern healthcare is facing and cause serious consequences in both oral health and health in general. Therefore one important aspect of modern dental and medical training is training in health behavior change. In this field, a counseling method and technique called Motivational Interviewing (MI) has shown quite promising results. MI training is introduced and applied as a part of the students training in various dental and medical educational centers. The purpose of this systematic literature review was to study the effects of MI training on dental and medical students’ counseling skills and their confidence in health behavior change communication with the patients. Method: The study was a systematic literature review, conducted from December 2010 to May 2011. Identification of relevant individual studies for this review was made by analyzing data collected through searches in seven different databases: PubMed; Cohrane Central; Trip; PubMed Clinical Queries; Cinhal; Medline and Health Information Resources. Results: Seven relevant articles were found. Six articles showed that MI training seem to have an altering effect on the counseling skills of the students. Five articles showed improvement in the students’ confidence in using MI and behavior change communication. Conclusion: Training in MI seems to have a positive influence on the communication skills of the students leading to improved counseling techniques and better ability to counsel patients on health behavior change.