Correct body posture in nurses: an application of motivational interviewing

According to the importance of correct posture as one of the preventive strategies of low back pain and given the importance of approaches such as motivational interviewing for encouraging people to adopt healthy behaviors this study was performed to determine the effect of motivational interviewing based on Transtheoretical Model (TTM) to adopting correct body posture in operating room nurses. In this quasi-experimental study, 82 nurses who were in the contemplation and preparation stages for adopting correct body posture were selected and randomly assigned into intervention and control groups. Instruments for gathering data were a questionnaire based on the TTM and a checklist for assessing adopting correct body posture. Two groups were completed questionnaires before the intervention. Five sessions of group motivational interviewing was conducted to the intervention group. Two groups were followed-up one-month after intervention. The results showed that 45.2% of nurses in the intervention group were in contemplation stage and 54.8% were in preparation stage before the intervention. One month after the intervention, more percentage of participants in the intervention group moved into the action stagecompared to the control group. Following the intervention, perceived benefits, all cognitive and behavioral processes, self-efficacy and also adopting correct body posture were significantly higher in the intervention group compared to the control group. There was a significant reduction in perceived barriers in the intervention group compared to the control group after the intervention. It can be concluded that implementing motivational interviewing based on TTM is an effective method for encouraging nurses to adopt correct body posture.