Review article
Behavior change techniques to promote healthcare professionals’ eHealth competency: A systematic review of interventions

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2021.104432Get rights and content
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open access

Highlights

  • The first review using taxonomy for professionals’ eHealth competency interventions.

  • We identified 29 different techniques to promote professionals’ eHealth competency.

  • Reviewed interventions tended to improve more eHealth capability than motivation.

  • Support, encouragement, and user-centered changes could improve eHealth competency.

Abstract

Introduction

The use of eHealth is rapidly -->increasing; however, many healthcare professionals have insufficient eHealth competency. Consequently, interventions addressing eHealth competency might be useful in fostering the effective use of eHealth.

Objective

Our systematic review aimed to identify and evaluate the behavior change techniques applied in interventions to promote healthcare professionals’ eHealth competency.

Methods

We conducted a systematic literature review following the Joanna Briggs Institute’s Manual for Evidence Synthesis. Published quantitative studies were identified through screening PubMed, Embase, and CINAHL. Two reviewers independently performed full-text and quality assessment. Eligible interventions were targeted to any healthcare professional and aimed at promoting eHealth capability or motivation. We synthesized the interventions narratively using the Behavior Change Technique Taxonomy v1 and the COM-B model.

Results

This review included 32 studies reporting 34 heterogeneous interventions that incorporated 29 different behavior change techniques. The interventions were most likely to improve the capability to use eHealth and less likely to enhance motivation toward using eHealth. The promising techniques to promote both capability and motivation were action planning and participatory approach. Information about colleagues’ approval, emotional social support, monitoring emotions, restructuring or adding objects to the environment, and credible source are techniques worth further investigation.

Conclusions

We found that interventions tended to focus on promoting capability, although motivation would be as crucial for competent eHealth performance. Our findings indicated that empathy, encouragement, and user-centered changes in the work environment could improve eHealth competency as a whole. Evidence-based techniques should be favored in the development of interventions, and further intervention research should focus on nurses and multifaceted competency required for using different eHealth systems and devices.

Abbreviations

BCT
behavior change technique
BCTTv1
Behavior Change Technique Taxonomy version 1
CPOE
computerized provider order entry system
EHR
electronic health records
ICT
information and communication technology

Keywords

Competency
eHealth
Healthcare professional
Intervention
Organizational change

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