TY - JOUR T1 - Behavior-Change Action Plans in Primary Care: A Feasibility Study of Clinicians JF - The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine JO - J Am Board Fam Med SP - 215 LP - 223 DO - 10.3122/jabfm.19.3.215 VL - 19 IS - 3 AU - Kate MacGregor AU - Margaret Handley AU - Sharon Wong AU - Claire Sharifi AU - Ken Gjeltema AU - Dean Schillinger AU - Thomas Bodenheimer Y1 - 2006/05/01 UR - http://www.jabfm.org/content/19/3/215.abstract N2 - Purpose: Collaborative goal-setting—with clinician and patient together deciding on concrete behavior-change goals—may be more effective in encouraging healthy behaviors than traditional clinician-directed advice. This study explores whether it is feasible for clinicians to engage patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors in collaborative goal-setting and concrete action planning during the primary care visit.Methods: Primary care clinicians were trained in goal-setting and action planning techniques and asked to conduct action plan discussions with study patients during medical visits. Clinicians’ experiences were documented through post-visit surveys and with questionnaires and semistructured interviews at the end of the study.Results: Forty-three clinicians and 274 patients with CHD risk factors participated in the study; 83% of the patient encounters resulted in a behavior-change action plan. Goal-setting discussions lasted an average of 6.9 minutes. Clinicians rated 75% of the discussions as equally or more satisfying than previous behavior-change discussions, and identified time constraints as the most important barrier to adopting the goal-setting process.Conclusions: Collaborative goal-setting between clinicians and patients for improved health behaviors is viewed favorably by clinicians in primary care. Time constraints could be addressed by delegating goal-setting to other caregivers. ER -