Motivational Interviewing Reflection Paper

One key aspect that I learned from my patient interview relative to chronic care management is, the value in utilizing the 4 components of motivational interviewing. When I began my interview, my patient by sharing a list of diagnosis and dates. He also read a list of his medications. Rather than merely reading a problem list on his medical record, I wanted to capture the emotional essence of living with chronic heart disease and heart failure on my patient’s life. It can be challenging to get a patient to open up to a health care provider and share deeper emotions. I utilized the 4 components of motivational interviewing which included, open ended questions, reflection, affirmation and summarizing. Using these interview skills helped my patient

open up and elicit the deeper emotional response to my interview questions. Now that I have mastered these interview techniques, I can use them in my practice to help gather more information from my patient’s.

I also learned the importance of the five key self-management skills as outlined in our reading According to Meerabeau and Wright (2011), These skills include, 1) Problem solving, 2)Decision Making, 3) Utilization of resources, 4) Partnership working with healthcare professionals and most importantly, 5) Taking action or self-efficacy, (p.127). Each one of these aspects of self management must work together synergistically for the patient to have the highest success. I initially felt that a strong self efficacy is an predictor of self-management success however, it is all five areas together that enable the patient to be successful. My patient has a positive attitude and a high perceived self efficacy. He is informed and knowledgeable in regards to his heart disease etiology,symptoms, medications and treatments. He has utilizes his problem solving skills to identify problems and develop a plan. He works in partnership with his health care team to manage his heart disease and utilizes resources like family and other support mechanisms for his success. In my practice, I will keep these key self-management skills in mind when assessing my patient’s ability to learn,barriers and in all aspects of teaching and educating my patient’s