Progress monitoring measures: the interaction of clinician initial motivation with selection and maintenance issues

The use of Progress Monitoring (PM) measures has been shown to improve outcomes in therapy for clients who do not follow the normal trajectory of improvement. In addition to improved outcomes, there are several other documented benefits of PM that may motivate clinicians to use PM. Research has examined the broader field of selecting mental health care quality assessment tools and a review of the literature has pointed to the importance of considering motivation for assessment when selecting a measure. However, how motivation influences the selection or maintained usage of PM measures has not been studied. This study examined initial motivation as well as measure selection and continuing use of PM. Consensual Qualitative Research methodology was applied to characterize how clinicians (n = 25) started, selected, and maintained use of PM measures and how initial motivation related to measure selection and continued use. Regardless of initial motivation, convenience and effectiveness emerged as important when selecting and continuing to use a measure. Results are compared to current frameworks for selecting mental health- care quality indicators. Our results suggest that PM measures need to strike a balance, emphasizing convenience as well as efficacy in order to improve clinical uptake and adherence.