Specifying content and mechanisms of change in interventions to change professionals’ practice: an illustration from the Good Goals study in occupational therapy
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: It is widely agreed that interventions to change professionals' practice need to be clearly specified. This involves (1) selecting and defining the intervention techniques, (2) operationalising the techniques and deciding their delivery, and (3) formulating hypotheses about the mechanisms through which the techniques are thought to result in change. Descriptions of methods to achieve these objectives are limited. This paper reports methods and illustrates outputs from a study to meet these objectives, specifically from the Good Goals study to improve occupational therapists' caseload management practice. METHODS: (1) Behaviour change techniques were identified and selected from an existing matrix that maps techniques to determinants. An existing coding manual was used to define the techniques. (2) A team of occupational therapists generated context-relevant, acceptable modes of delivery for the techniques; these data were compared and contrasted with previously collected data, literature on caseload management, and the aims of the intervention. (3) Hypotheses about the mechanisms of change were formulated by drawing on the matrix and on theories of behaviour change. RESULTS: (1) Eight behaviour change techniques were selected: goal specified; self-monitoring; contract; graded tasks; increasing skills (problem solving, decision making, goal setting); coping skills; rehearsal of relevant skills; social processes of encouragement, support, and pressure; demonstration by others; and feedback. (2) A range of modes of delivery were generated (e.g., graded tasks' consisting of series of clinical cases and situations that become increasingly difficult). Conditions for acceptable delivery were identified (e.g., 'self-monitoring' was acceptable only if delivered at team level). The modes of delivery were specified as face-to-face training, task sheets, group tasks, DVDs, and team-based weekly meetings. (3) The eight techniques were hypothesized to target caseload management practice through eleven mediating variables. Three domains were hypothesized to be most likely to change: beliefs about capabilities, motivation and goals, and behavioural regulation. CONCLUSIONS: The project provides an exemplar of a systematic and reportable development of a quality-improvement intervention, with its methods likely to be applicable to other projects. A subsequent study of the intervention has provided early indication that use of systematic methods to specify interventions may help to maximize acceptability and effectiveness.
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Eleven of the 15 included papers incorporated other approaches, tools, or resources as a component of the intervention design process.
“Eleven of the 15 papers incorporated other approaches, tools, or resources as a component of the intervention design process [14, 19–28].”
From Methods for designing interventions to change healthcare professionals’ behaviour: a systematic review (2017) · cites this paper as [22]
Two of the 15 included papers incorporated the Behaviour Change Technique taxonomy without also incorporating the Theoretical Domains Framework.
“two incorporated the BCT taxonomy without also incorporating the TDF [22, 28]”
From Methods for designing interventions to change healthcare professionals’ behaviour: a systematic review (2017) · cites this paper as [22]
One of the 15 papers (Kolehmainen et al. [22]) assumed barriers had already been identified in previous work and provided a method for linking barriers to intervention components.
“One of these papers [22] reported an assumption that barriers had already been identified in previous work and provided a method for linking barriers to intervention components.”
From Methods for designing interventions to change healthcare professionals’ behaviour: a systematic review (2017) · cites this paper as [22]
Two of the 15 included papers incorporated the Medical Research Council (MRC) framework.
“and two incorporated the Medical Research Council (MRC) framework [22, 24].”
From Methods for designing interventions to change healthcare professionals’ behaviour: a systematic review (2017) · cites this paper as [22]
One study [22] targeted teams as well as individuals but did not do so at the organizational level.
“A second study [22] targeted teams as well as individuals but did not do so at the organizational level.”
From Methods for designing interventions to change healthcare professionals’ behaviour: a systematic review (2017) · cites this paper as [22]
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- Authors
- Kolehmainen, N., & Francis, J. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Aberdeen (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Kolehmainen, Niina
- Venue
- Implementation Science
- Published
- 2012-10-18
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 100-100
- ISSN
- 1748-5908 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3502268
- OpenAlex
- W2135242270
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 4.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Implementation Science (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- City Research Online (City University London) (acceptedVersion)
- Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Aberdeen University Research Archive (Aberdeen University) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Newcastle University ePrints (Newcastle Univesity) (cc-by)
- Funders
- McMaster University
- University of Aberdeen
- University of Stirling
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Policy Implementation Science
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Therapy Practice and Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
- Keywords
- behaviour change techniques, mechanisms of change, occupational therapy, caseload management, professional practice change, self-monitoring, goal setting, feedback, coping strategies, behavioral regulation, quality improvement intervention, intervention delivery mode, mediators
- MeSH terms
- Clinical Competence, Decision Making, Goals, Humans, Learning, Occupational Therapy, Professional Practice, Psychological Theory, Social Environment, Case Management, Translational Research, Biomedical, Quality Improvement
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