Understanding motivation to enhance patient compliance

Motivation as a psychological concept is important in health care because frequently good care is dependent on the motivation of the patient, his/her family and the practitioners within the healthcare team. In addition, nurses need to be motivated to keep up to date with professional developments. This article describes George Kelly's framework of motivation and suggests recommendations to enhance practice in this area. The main conclusion is that although external determinants can encourage a person to engage in a particular activity the most effective kind of motivation is that which is internally mediated.