Potthoff, Sebastian;
Kwasnicka, Dominika;
Avery, Leah;
Finch, Tracy;
Gardner, Benjamin;
Hankonen, Nelli;
Johnston, Derek;
... Grimshaw, Jeremy M; + view all
(2022)
Changing healthcare professionals' non-reflective processes to improve the quality of care.
Social Science & Medicine
, 298
, Article 114840. 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114840.
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Abstract
Rationale: Translating research evidence into clinical practice to improve care involves healthcare professionals adopting new behaviours and changing or stopping their existing behaviours. However, changing healthcare professional behaviour can be difficult, particularly when it involves changing repetitive, ingrained ways of providing care. There is an increasing focus on understanding healthcare professional behaviour in terms of non-reflective processes, such as habits and routines, in addition to the more often studied deliberative processes. Theories of habit and routine provide two complementary lenses for understanding healthcare professional behaviour, although to date, each perspective has only been applied in isolation. // Objectives: To combine theories of habit and routine to generate a broader understanding of healthcare professional behaviour and how it might be changed. // Methods: Sixteen experts met for a two-day multidisciplinary workshop on how to advance implementation science by developing greater understanding of non-reflective processes. // Results: From a psychological perspective ‘habit’ is understood as a process that maintains ingrained behaviour through a learned link between contextual cues and behaviours that have become associated with those cues. Theories of habit are useful for understanding the individual's role in developing and maintaining specific ways of working. Theories of routine add to this perspective by describing how clinical practices are formed, adapted, reinforced and discontinued in and through interactions with colleagues, systems and organisational procedures. We suggest a selection of theory-based strategies to advance understanding of healthcare professionals' habits and routines and how to change them. // Conclusion: Combining theories of habit and routines has the potential to advance implementation science by providing a fuller understanding of the range of factors, operating at multiple levels of analysis, which can impact on the behaviours of healthcare professionals, and so quality of care provision.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Changing healthcare professionals' non-reflective processes to improve the quality of care |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114840 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114840 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Habits; Routines; Dual process models; Theories of practice; Healthcare professionals; Quality improvement; Implementation science; Behaviour change |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Behavioural Science and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10144813 |
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