Table 6 Acupuncturist’s reasons for deciding when to first offer support for lifestyle/health behaviour changes
Reason | Definition | Frequencies | % |
|---|---|---|---|
Patient Receptiveness | Responds to the patient’s readiness for change (openness/commitment/request) | 129 | 36.6 |
Depends on Diagnosis | Depends on the diagnosis/condition including the cause of the condition (aetiology) or likely impact of behaviour change on the condition | 77 | 21.9 |
After Relationship Established | Forming a good relationship and rapport with the patient needs to be established first. | 76 | 21.6 |
Standard Practice | Always gives support for lifestyle change as standard part of practice (usually comes up in initial case history or traditional diagnosis) | 60 | 17 |
Gentle Approach | Introduces support for lifestyle change in a step by step, gentle way starting with small changes | 34 | 9.7 |
Patient Capability | Patient’s capability to make appropriate lifestyle changes/how difficult the changes will be to make (more than just readiness or openness – indicates something about whether the patient actually can make changes) | 23 | 6.5 |
Guided by Conversation | Guided by a two-way discussion and conversation with patient | 20 | 5.7 |
Wait Treatment Response (sub-categories a, b, c below): | Waits to see how well acupuncture treatment is working | 16 | 4.5 |
 a) not working | if condition not improving with acupuncture | 4 | 1.1 |
 b) after working | after condition has improved with acupuncture | 10 | 2.8 |
 c) general | unspecified wait for treatment response | 2 | 0.6 |
Receptive at First | Believes patients are generally looking for change when they come or believes patients are usually most receptive to making changes on their first visit. | 13 | 3.7 |
First Treatment Full | Feels the first appointment is too soon to offer lifestyle change support (already full of information, too overwhelming at first). | 11 | 3.1 |
Intuition | Spontaneous gut feeling or whenever the idea comes to them (Intuition/Experience/Right moment /When I think) | 9 | 2.6 |
General Health Behaviours | Whether health behaviour needs general improvement (not for specific condition) | 8 | 2.3 |
If Patient Long-term | Offers support if patient is long term | 4 | 1.1 |
After Time to Consider | Needs enough time to gather information and consider diagnosis/appropriate recommendations before offering any lifestyle change support | 3 | 9 |
Time Available | Offers support if there is time available | 2 | 0.6 |