Fidelity and Maintenance of Motivational Interviewing Skills in Diabetes Prevention Program Coaches: A Pilot Study

Background: Motivational interviewing is an effective counselling style for changing lifestyle behaviours. Few studies have examined brief motivational interviewing training for non-healthcare practitioners to deliver motivational interviewing-informed health programs. The purpose of this study was to pilot a brief motivational interviewing workshop on non-healthcare practitioners to deliver a community-based diabetes prevention program. Methods: This pilot study used convenience sampling to obtain seven participants naïve to motivational interviewing who wanted to become diabetes prevention program coaches. Participants attended a two-day motivational interviewing workshop, were then shadowed by an expert coach delivering the diabetes prevention program, and finally, were shadowed by an expert coach and received feedback. The primary outcome was whether coaches were able to maintain a level of at least client-centered motivational interviewing skills for the six months post-training, as assessed by the Motivational Interviewing Competency Assessment (MICA). Two independent coders used the MICA to assess a random selection of participants’ audio recordings of interactions between with diabetes prevention program clients. One session for each client in coaches’ first six months post-training was coded. Motivational interviewing-competency scores were generated using MICA scores for six months. Results: Coaches were 25B2 years old, 71% female, and 43% had less than a bachelor’s degree. Mean motivational interviewing-competency was at a level of client-centered (total MICA score of 3.3a0.24) over six months. The majority (71%) of all sessions were client-centered for all of the MICA categories. Conclusions: This pilot study offers preliminary evidence that non-healthcare practitioners attending a brief motivational interviewing training were able to deliver a client-centered level of motivational interviewing in a community-based diabetes prevention program up to six months post-training without the use of any booster training sessions. This suggests that the training used within this study may be sufficient to train future non-healthcare practitioner diabetes prevention program coaches in the community.

PGY1 Resident-Led Mock Virtual Interviews to Prepare for the 2022 Otolaryngology Residency Virtual Interviews

Due to the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, virtual interviews are planned for the 2021-2022 residency application cycle. The virtual interview will remain novel to applicants for each match cycle until the graduating medical student class has experience from virtual interviews during their medical school admissions. The virtual interview poses unique challenges that are unique from in-person formats. Given the lack of experience of applicants in the 2022 match, practicing interviewing skills prior to the actual date is vital to success. We describe a postgraduate year 1 (PGY1)–run mock interview session for applicants preparing for the 2021-2022 otolaryngology interview cycle and discuss the methodology. Deliberate practice with PGY1 residents who have just recently undergone the virtual interview process can better prepare applicants for their virtual interviews, improve on-camera behaviors, and ameliorate mental health challenges unique to the virtual format.