The effects of teaching dental students brief motivational interviewing for smoking-cessation counseling: a pilot study

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to explore the changes that occurred in dental students' counseling techniques as a result of training in Brief Motivational Interviewing (BMI). A randomized pretest, posttest design was used with eleven students in each group. Baseline and posttraining measures of students' counseling techniques and the characteristics of the counseling session with standardized patients were made. The measures were: student behavior from videotapes, patient involvement in the treatment, establishment of good doctor-patient rapport, perceived efficacy in promoting patient change, and student confidence and interest in the task. MANOVA found significant differences between the trained and the untrained groups (F = 4.019, p = 0.018). Training resulted in sessions in which students used more BMI techniques and patients were more actively involved. No changes were seen in the other variables. Future studies must examine whether more experience will improve the students' ability to use BMI to enhance patient rapport, to increase their sense of competence and interest in doing counseling, and to determine the effectiveness of the counseling to encourage patient smoking cessation.