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Using Implementation Intentions to Teach Practitioners: Changing Practice Behaviors via Continuing Education

At the time of this study, Dr. Casper was affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry, Drexel University College of Medicine, P.O. Box 45357, Philadelphia, PA 19124-2399 (e-mail: ecasper{at}nyc.rr.com).

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the effectiveness of implementation intentions on increasing the use of a practice behavior among mental health practitioners who attended a one-day continuing education class. METHODS: Seventy-eight practitioners were randomly assigned to one of two classes on psychiatric advance directives. One class incorporated instruction in implementation intentions (N=40) and the other class did not (N=38). Implementation intention training involved having the participants describe the best time and place to use a practitioner-guided procedure to assist consumers to complete a psychiatric advance directive. Use of the practitioner-guided procedure was the dependent variable in this study. Use of the procedure in practice was assessed three months after the class via an electronic self-report survey. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences between the two class conditions in participant characteristics or preclass or postclass knowledge of and intentions to use the procedure. Fifty-four participants (69%) responded to the three-month follow-up survey, indicating that they had used the practitioner-guided procedure. The results of the follow-up survey showed that overall those attending the class that incorporated implementation intentions used the practitioner-guided procedure significantly more often than those in the other class (80% versus 58%). The effect of implementation intentions on utilization of the practitioner-guided procedure was evident among practitioners whose postclass intentions were high but below the median for the overall sample (²=7.1, df=1, p<.01). Implementation rates among practitioners with the highest post-class intentions were equivalent in the two class conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Incorporating implementation intentions into continuing education classes can increase the use of practices taught in these classes among well-motivated practitioners.

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