Healthcare professionals' perspective on delivering personalised and holistic care: using the Theoretical Domains Framework

Eunice Wong; Felix Mavondo; Lidia Horvat; Louise McKinlay; Jane Fisher

doi:10.1186/s12913-022-07630-1

Healthcare professionals' perspective on delivering personalised and holistic care: using the Theoretical Domains Framework

BMC Health Serv Res. 2022 Mar 1;22(1):281. doi: 10.1186/s12913-022-07630-1.

Authors

Eunice Wong^{1

2}, Felix Mavondo³, Lidia Horvat⁴, Louise McKinlay⁴, Jane Fisher⁵

Affiliations

¹ Monash Sustainable Development Institute, BehaviourWorks Australia, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. eunice.wong@monash.edu.
² School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. eunice.wong@monash.edu.
³ Department of Marketing, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
⁴ Safer Care Victoria, Department of Health Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.
⁵ School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

Abstract

Background: Interventions to improve personalised and holistic care delivery by healthcare professionals are more likely to be effective if they target the factors influencing specific behaviours. This study reports on the development and testing of a questionnaire to identify perspectives of healthcare professionals' personalised and holistic care behaviours based on the Theoretical Domains Framework.

Methods: The study was conducted in public health services in Victoria, Australia. The questionnaire was developed and pilot-tested with behaviour change researchers and healthcare professionals. Doctors, nurses and midwives were recruited via notices and email invitations from Safer Care Victoria's website and mailing lists of healthcare professionals and invited to completed the questionnaire online (hosted on Qualtrics). Health services administrators and allied health professionals were excluded from the study. Confirmatory factor analysis was undertaken to generate the model of best fit and group differences were tested using univariate tests.

Results: One hundred and four healthcare professionals from public health services in Victoria, Australia, completed the 39-item questionnaire focusing on specific personalised and holistic care behaviours. The final model consisted of 13 factors and 39 items, and CFA produced an acceptable fit, as well as adequate levels of discriminant validity and internal consistency (α = 0.60 to 0.84). Seven domains, "social influence", "motivation & goals", "environmental context and resources', "skills", 'beliefs about consequences", "behaviour regulation" and "nature of behaviour" were identified. Significant differences in the factors influencing these behaviours were found in groups with different years of experience and role seniority. These findings suggest that future interventions need to be targeted to specific groups.

Conclusion: This study identified the specific behaviours and the factors associated with performance of personalised and holistic care among healthcare professionals. The findings suggest several interventions and policy functions may be taken to improve personalised and holistic care.

Keywords: Behaviour change; Person-centred care; Theoretical Domains Framework.

MeSH terms

Allied Health Personnel
Attitude of Health Personnel
Health Personnel*
Humans
Motivation*
Victoria