Use of Nola Pender's model in practice

MollyJ · Apr 22, 2001

I started with Pender late in grad school but have since gravitated toward Prochaska and Diclemente's model of behavior change (called The Transtheoretical Approach to the Process of Change) because it fit what I did the best and my focus in my practice had always been dangerous health behaviors like sex and now drugs and alcohol.

I found Pender's model kind of sprawly and I was working off of the first edition of her book when a second edition was due but not out. Prochaska and Diclemente much more compactly fit the aspect of Health that interested me the most: how to get people to look at health behaviors and how to deal with it when they just didn't want to change. Prochaska and Diclemente are not nurses. They are psychologists. Compactly, their stages of change are: Pre-contemplation (don't even know or recognize the behavior is a problem); Contemplation (thinking about it; not prepared to change; Preparation; Action; Maintenance; Recycling (recognizes that failure at behavior change is natural and normal and a source of learning); and Termination or exiting the process of change. I've gone on to focus on a form of interaction meant to maximize change from pre contemplation , contemplation and preparion called Motivational Interviewing, which I think is a hugely underrecognized tool for nurses.

I credit Pender with helping me thing in this whole line though. (not very helpful, I know.)