A randomized pragmatic feasibility trial to promote student perspective-taking on client physical activity level: a collaborative project
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Date
2024-09-28
Authors
Hoplock, Lisa
Lobchuk, Michelle
Strachan, Shaelyn
Halas, Gayle
Olfert, Cheryl
Webber, Sandra
Parsons, Joanne L.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BMC
Abstract
Background
Health-care practitioners have opportunities to talk with clients about unhealthy behaviors. How practitioners approach these conversations involves skill to be effective. Thus, teaching health-care students to communicate empathetically with clients should promote effective client-practitioner conversations about health behavior change. The primary objective of this pilot trial was to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and appropriateness of a theoretically informed intervention designed to improve perspective-taking.
Methods
For inclusion in this randomized mixed-methods parallel two-arm trial, participants needed to be a student at the investigators’ Canadian university and have completed course content on behavior change communication. Using a 1:1 allocation ratio, participants in Respiratory, Physical, and Occupational Therapy; Nurse Practitioner; and Kinesiology programs were randomly assigned to full or partial intervention conditions. Full intervention participants completed a perspective-taking workshop and practiced perspective-taking prior to an in-lab dialogue with a client-actor (masked to condition) about physical activity. Partial intervention participants received the workshop after the dialogue. We assessed feasibility and appropriateness by comparing recruitment rates, protocol, and psychometric outcomes to criteria. We assessed acceptability (secondary outcome) by analyzing exit interviews.
Results
We screened and randomized 163 participants (82 = full intervention; 81 = partial intervention). We fell slightly short of our recruitment success criteria (10–15 participants per program) when 2/50 Occupational Therapy students participated. We met some but not all of our protocol criteria: Some full intervention participants did not practice perspective-taking before the dialogue, because they did not see anyone during the practice period or did not have a practice opportunity. Psychometric outcomes met the criteria, except for one measure that demonstrated ceiling effects and low reliability (Cronbach’s alpha < .70). There were no adverse events related to participation.
Conclusions
The intervention should be largely feasible, appropriate, and acceptable to deliver. We suggest changes that are large enough to warrant conducting another pilot study. We outline recommended improvements that are applicable to researchers and educators interested in recruitment, adherence to home practice, and online uptake of the intervention.
Trial registration
This trial was registered retrospectively on November 8, 2023, at
https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06123507.
Description
Keywords
Empathy, Education, Perspective-taking, Feasibility
Citation
Pilot and Feasibility Studies. 2024 Sep 28;10(1):123