Hospital Pharmacists and Behavioural Change Theory: Who, Why and How?

Endeavouring to change the practice of doctors, colleagues and patients is common practice for pharmacists. Pharmacists are not trained in the humanities and the approaches used by them to change practice, such as educational campaigns, are often intuitive and not always successful. Approaches that are based on behavioural theory and tested models of behavioural change may have a greater probability of success. In this article the theory of planned behaviour, social cognitive theory and the transtheoretical model of behavioural change and their application to these efforts are discussed. Although this article focuses mainly on attempting to change doctors' behaviours, the principles can be applied to other groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]