Methods
This study, which has a descriptive design and uses a
qualitative method, was conducted in primary health
care in a county in southwestern Sweden.
Sample
Twenty RNs who had been interviewed earlier about
their experiences with MI as a method for HPP [18] mediated
names of patients who had visited them for lifestyle
discussions. The RNs worked in 13 different health
centres that included district nurse surgery centres and
doctor surgery centres all over the county in either urban
or rural areas and with different population structure. The
RNs, all female, had 12-40 years of professional experience.
The whole group of RNs worked continuously with
lifestyle discussions among their patients. All of the RNs
had taken part in training sessions of MI, and they had
been practicing MI for 3-10 years. At the time, nine of the
RNs were seeing patients for lifestyle discussions. The
RNs was instructed that during one month ask the two
first patients they had met at least three times for such
discussions whether they wanted to participate in the
study. Two RNs were able to contact one patient each,
and the other seven contacted two patients each. All of
these patients agreed to participate in the study, altogether,
sixteen patients (six women and ten men), ranging from 28
to 77 years old with an average of 60 years. Seven patients
had histories of smoking, one with both smoking and
weight-control problems, four had histories of weightcontrol
problems and four were at risk for alcohol abuse.
The patients had visited their respective RNs for lifestyle
discussions at least three times and up to several times
during four years. All patients were Swedish speaking