Understanding implementation completion of tailored motivational interviewing in multidisciplinary adolescent HIV clinics

Background Understanding the barriers and facilitators of implementation completion is critical to determining why some implementation efforts fail and some succeed. Such studies provide the foundation for developing further strategies to support implementation completion when scaling up evidence-based practices (EBPs) such as Motivational Interviewing. Method This mixed-methods study utilized the Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, and Sustainment framework in an iterative analytic design to compare adolescent HIV clinics that demonstrated either high or low implementation completion in the context of a hybrid Type III trial of tailored motivational interviewing. Ten clinics were assigned to one of three completion categories (high, medium, and low) based on percentage of staff who adhered to three components of implementation strategies. Comparative analysis of staff qualitative interviews compared and contrasted the three high-completion clinics with the three low-completion clinics. Results Results suggested several factors that distinguished high-completion clinics compared to low-completion clinics including optimism, problem-solving barriers, leadership, and staff stress and turnover. Conclusions Implementation strategies targeting these factors can be added to EBP implementation packages to improve implementation success.