Everybody working in the NHS has the responsibility to help improve the health of the nation and spread the message that having a healthy lifestyle can not only increase your life expectancy and quality of life but also reduce the incidence of chronic and life limiting illnesses.

Having conversations about health behaviours should be part of your everyday interactions with patients.

Here are the key points about Making Every Contact Count:

• Should be no longer than five minutes.
• Aimed at encouraging and motivating people to change their behaviour.
• Shouldn’t be about telling people what to do.
• It’s not about helping them to change.
• Be mindful of someone’s body language and facial expressions as this will help you judge if they are receptive to the conversation.
• Not every patient will want to change.
• Signposting to further information or services is important.

Research from the UCL Behaviour Change Unit suggests it takes approximately 66 days for a new skill to become part of your day to day activity so you must consciously think about incorporating a health behaviour conversation into your daily conversations with patients until it becomes part of your routine like 2WHAM.

Remember practice makes perfect!