Preparing for Practice: An Exploration of Health and Social Care Professionals’ Perceptions of Behaviour Change Education

TL;DR

This study explores how health and social care professionals in Australia feel about their education in behavior change and how prepared they are to help people adopt healthier behaviors.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel application of the Theoretical Domains Framework to assess behavior change education in health and social care curricula.

Findings

Communication skills were most emphasized in training, while behavior change theories and techniques were less covered.

Professionals showed strong intentions for behavior change but lacked confidence in their capability to deliver interventions.

Mental health/social care professionals differed from others in their beliefs about capabilities.

Abstract

Health and social care professionals are important for fostering behaviour change to improve population health. Behaviour change education is varied across university curricula, impacting practitioner preparedness to promote engagement in health behaviours. This study examined health and social care professionals’ perceptions of behaviour change education and training in their university course and the factors influencing their preparedness to engage in behaviour change conversations, guided by the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF). Australian health and social care professionals (N = 153, Mage = 33.4, SD = 10.5) were surveyed on their perceptions of behaviour change training, knowledge, confidence, and six TDF domains. Sixty-one percent of participants reported that communication skills were highly integrated (‘a lot’ to ‘a great deal’) throughout their course, compared to behaviour change techniques (45.8%), behaviour change theories (45.8%), and counselling therapies (39.9%). Mental health/social care professionals differed significantly from primary care and allied health professionals in skills (p < 0.05) and beliefs about capabilities (p < 0.05 primary care only). Findings demonstrated strong professional identity and intentions for behaviour change but lower confidence in their own capability to deliver behaviour change interventions. University curricula should expand behaviour change content beyond current communication skills training, using discipline-specific approaches for improved graduate preparedness.