Behaviour change support education in chronic disease: An international focus group study with undergraduate students and academic educators in nursing, pharmacy and sport science disciplines

INTRODUCTION: Supporting behaviour change for the self-management of chronic diseases is a key competency for health professionals. Little is known about how undergraduate students and academic educators across disciplines and European contexts perceive current education, identify unmet needs relative to a European competency framework, and view the implementation of novel educational tools. To address this gap, we explored students' and educators' perspectives, focusing on unmet needs, views on interprofessional education, preferred modalities for using a MOOC, case studies and a simulation software, and perceived facilitators and barriers to use.

METHODS: Twelve online focus groups were conducted separately with a purposive sample of 39 undergraduate students (seven groups) and 27 academic educators (5 groups). Recruitment spanned national and transnational levels across seven European countries, and included participants from nursing, pharmacy and sport science disciplines within the focus groups. The discussions were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed using thematic analysis.

RESULTS: Unmet needs in behaviour change support education were identified (e.g., models and theories, behaviour change techniques, work in partnership to prioritise target behaviours), detailing contributing factors and strategies for their development. Another theme was interprofessional behaviour change education, highlighting perceived benefits, barriers, such as limited training of educators, and implementation strategies. The third theme, on educational products, yielded insights on barriers and facilitators of use, as well as implementation within undergraduate programme.

CONCLUSION: This study highlights the unmet needs in behaviour change support education, the potential of interprofessional education (IPE) and innovative educational products to address these gaps. Findings suggest the need for integrating behaviour change support education into undergraduate curricula, enhancing interprofessional learning on this topic and leveraging digital tools to better equip future professionals in chronic disease management. Strategies emerging from the data can guide these endeavours.