Rural Family Medicine Clinicians' Motivations to Participate in a Pragmatic Obesity Trial.

PURPOSE: To understand the motivations of rural-practicing primary care clinicians who participate in an intensive multiyear pragmatic randomized behavioral obesity intervention trial, Rural Engagement in Primary Care for Optimizing Weight Reduction (RE-POWER).

METHODS: Structured interviews were conducted with 21 family medicine clinicians who were study leads at participating rural practices. Themes emerged through an analysis of transcripts and interview notes by using the constant comparative method.

RESULTS: The analysis revealed 3 main themes. First, primary care clinicians participated in RE-POWER because it provided a concrete plan to address their recurring clinical care need for effective obesity treatment and management. Second, participation offered help to frustrated physicians who felt a deep professional duty to care for all their patients' problems but were dissatisfied with current obesity management. Third, participation was also attractive to rural primary care clinicians because it provided a visible and sustainable way to demonstrate their commitment to improving the health of patients and the broader community.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show that clinicians are motivated to try solutions for a clinical problem-in this case obesity-when that clinical problem is also closely connected to a particularly frustrating area of clinical care that challenges their professional identity. Our data suggest that a motivation to close the gap between ideal and real practice can become such a high priority that clinicians are sometimes willing to try potential solutions, such as engagement in research, that they otherwise would not consider.