Motivational interviewing for contact tracing: developing co-produced training to improve practice

The research would develop training for contact tracers, to aim to help them to improve their communication with members of the public, feel more confident in the job they do and improve their wellbeing and job satisfaction. This would involve training them in a communication approach called motivational interviewing (MI) which would help members of the public identify their own reasons for complying with track and trace guidance relating to self-isolation and providing information about people whom they have recently been in contact with.

In phase 1, the research team would work with contact tracers in one local authority to find out more about their role, and what they would like from the MI training. This would enable the project team and contact tracers to work together on the development of a training package.

In phase 2, contact tracers from local authorities or employed through private agencies would be invited to attend one of four one-day online training days. The training programme will be offered free to contact tracers via online portals. Participants will be asked to sign up via Eventbrite for one of four sessions.

It is intended to have no more than 25 participants at each training session to improve the training experience. After each training session, all attendees will complete an online survey. This will be used to develop and improve the training for future sessions.

Some contract tracers who volunteer will be asked to take part in a short telephone interview to find out to what extent the training has helped their practice. Their feedback will be analysed and this will used to develop a final training package, which could mean that more contact tracers could be trained in the future.