Evaluation and training of medication adherence counselors in a clinical trial: Application of a skill inventory to video-recorded interviews

This report describes the procedures and feasibility of an integrated evaluation and training program developed at the Baylor-Methodist Lipid Research Clinic to examine the skills used by the clinic's professional staff in conducting medication adherence interviews with participants in the Coronary Primary Prevention Trial (CPPT). The specific aims of this project were to evaluate the staff's interviewing and counseling skills, identify strengths and deficits, provide needed training, and reexamine the staff's skills following this training. Each of five staff members conducted two 20-minute video-recorded interviews with two different simulated CPPT participants. A trained observer reviewed the video-recordings and evaluated, by an Inventory for Interviewing and Counseling Skills for Adherence to Medication (IICS-AM), each staff member's possession and frequency of use of 17 interviewing skills and 10 counseling skills. The 27 skills on the IICS-AM were selected from the literature as being most frequently recommended for effective interviewing and counseling for medication adherence. These rating data were used to design a 14-week training program to acquire and promote the use of these skills. Following training, the video-recorded interview procedure was repeated and the data analyzed to identify the effects of the training program. The integrated evaluation and training procedures used in this project offer a practical, objective method for examining, improving, and monitoring the skills of the adherence counseling staff in a clinic participating in a multicenter clinical trial.