Evaluation of behavioural change skills training in clinical nutrition and dietetics students: a pilot trial of blended learning and face-to-face educational approaches

• Register: ISRCTN
• Last refreshed on: 30 April 2018
• Main ID: ISRCTN71409897
• Date of registration: 16/03/2018
• Prospective Registration: No
• Primary sponsor: University College Dublin
• Public title: Evaluation of behavioural change skills training in clinical nutrition and dietetics students: a pilot trial of blended learning and face-to-face educational approaches
• Scientific title: Evaluation of theory-driven behavioural change skills training in clinical nutrition and dietetics students: a pilot trial comparing blended learning and face-to-face educational approaches
• Date of first enrolment: 08/02/2018
• Target sample size: 20
• Recruitment status: Completed
• URL: http://isrctn.com/ISRCTN71409897
• Study type: Interventional
• Study design: Single-centre pilot randomized controlled trial (Other)

Countries of recruitment

Ireland

Contacts

• Name: Deirdre Hurley

Key inclusion & exclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria: Students registered on the MSc Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics programme at University College Dublin
Exclusion criteria: Students registered on any other programme at University College Dublin

Age minimum:
Age maximum:
Gender: Both

Health Condition(s) or Problem(s) studied

Education of pre-registration students in clinical nutrition and dietetics in behavioural change skills
Not Applicable

Intervention(s)

Consenting participants (i.e. students registered on the MSc Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics programme) will be randomly allocated to the experimental arm (usual face-to-face behavioural change skills training + E-learning behaviour change skills training; n=10) or the control arm (usual face-to-face behavioural change skills training only; n=10). Following provision of written, informed consent and completion of the baseline questionnaires all participants will be randomized. Concealed randomization will be conducted by the Principal Investigator using a random numbers table.

Experimental arm: 4 hours Group-Based Face-to-Face Training + Individual E-learning Training in Behavioural Change Skills
Control arm: 4 hours Group-Based Face-to-Face Training in Behavioural Change Skills

All participants will receive usual face-to-face training in behavioural change skills and in addition, experimental arm participants will be given access to the E-SOLAS training programme to complete independently over a 4-week period. On completion of the study each participant will be invited to complete the post-training questionnaire and submit an audio-recording of their practice of behaviour change skills for blinded rating by two members of the research team.

Primary Outcome(s)

Measured at baseline and post-training:
1. Knowledge of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) strategies will be assessed by students narratively describing how they would work to motivate a disengaged client case study that will be coded by a blinded expert rater
2. Confidence (self-efficacy) in the use of the above SDT behavioural change strategies will be assessed using a researcher devised questionnaire (10 items, 7-point Likert Scale)
3. Competence in applying the above SDT behavioural change strategies will be assessed by each student audio-recording a role play with a colleague that will involve each participants use of the SDT strategies to support the 'client' to change their behaviour related to healthy eating, which will be rated by a blinded expert rater

Secondary Outcome(s)

Satisfaction and acceptability of each educational training programme will be assessed using a researcher devised questionnaire (5-point Likert Scale) post training

Secondary ID(s)

LS-E-18-23-Hurley

Source(s) of Monetary Support

University College Dublin

Ethics review

Status:
Approval date:
Contact:

University College Dublin, Human Research Ethics Committee - Sciences (HREC-LS), 31/01/2018, ref: LS-E-18-23-Hurley

Results

• Results available: Yes
• Date Completed: 30/06/2018