Readiness to change measure
Readiness to change is the degree to which members (of a community or an organisation) view a problem as important and are prepared to take action to address the problem. Part of this readiness relates to whether the community wants to address a particular health issue. A researcher may see that diabetes is a key issue for a community, but the community feels that drugs are the main issue to address right now. The other part of readiness is whether the members are prepared to take a particular action.
Recommendations
Assess the members’ rating of the importance of a health issues. This can be done by examining key health statistics or other existing data or surveying the community.
Assess the member’ rating of reading for implementing a change (see scale below)
After gather these data, have a conversation among the team, and other stakeholders to determine whether this is a viable project idea. Consider the following questions:
a. How important is this issue for the community?
b. Are the community members and researchers equally interested in this issue? Or is it the researchers primarily pushing the idea?
c. Are the community members and/or community organisations committed to implementing change?
d. What resources do we have available to create and implement change?
Readiness for Implementing Change Scale (using a five-point scale from 5 = completely to 1 = not at all)
1. We are committed to implementing this change.
2. We are determined to implement this change.
3. We are motivated to implement this change.
Source:
Shea, C. M., Jacobs, S. R., Esserman, D. A., Bruce, K., & Weiner, B. J. (2014). Organizational readiness for implementing change: a psychometric assessment of a new measure. Implement Sci, 9(7), 1-15.
Engage for Equity, Center for Participatory Research, University of New Mexico: https://cpr.unm.edu/research-projects/cbpr-project/index.html
