Assessment of Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment Training to Interprofessional Health-Care Students

Abstract

Substance abuse and addiction are responsible for an assortment of health and financial concerns in the United States. Tools to identify and assist at-risk persons before they develop a substance use disorder are necessary. Screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) can be utilized by health-care professionals to identify those at risk to minimize healthrelated complications and the potential of developing a substance use disorder. The primary objective of this study was to provide educational training sessions on SBIRT to health-care students utilizing interprofessional education activities and assess perceptions of the training sessions and activities with regard to confidence to utilize SBIRT in at-risk patients and overall student satisfaction with SBIRT instruction. The research protocol enrolled students of pharmacy, nursing, medicine, behavioral health, and physician assistant studies who received interprofessional SBIRT training. Students completed an anonymous posttraining online survey, measuring student perceptions of knowledge gained and confidence to utilize training. A total of 303 students completed the SBIRT training. Approximately 70% of students were satisfied with the training materials, instruction, quality, and experience. After training, 78% were confident that they could perform screening for substance abuse, conduct a brief intervention (80%), and when to refer to treatment (71%). A total 73% of students reported that the asynchronous online-based activity was extremely effective in increasing knowledge of the roles and responsibilities of other disciplines and providing opportunities to interact with students from other health professions. Interprofessional education-trained students from multiple health-care disciplines feel comfortable performing SBIRT to identify persons at risk for substance misuse in practice.

Comfort Levels of Outpatient Health Care Professionals When Asking About Substance Use–Related Sexual Activity: A Pilot Survey

“…18,19 Although less literature supports similar interventions for other health professions, it is likely that they would similarly benefit from general strategies of providing standardized scripts or clinical simulations, even if asynchronous. 20 These findings informed the development of a 1-hour training to increase skill and knowledge regarding the intersection of sexual health and substance misuse (unpublished data); the in-person training of surgical fellows, residents, and attendings was engaged in discussion and role play demonstrations, thus highlighting further the need for tailored training and ongoing research. Findings about gender and racial identity may be spurious given unclear significance of any difference between "agree" and "strongly agree" and the small number of non-White participants.…”

“…Potential interventions for sexual health history training may translate, such as just-in-time teaching or standardized patients, substituting for the higher volume of patient encounters seen in these specialties 18,19 . Although less literature supports similar interventions for other health professions, it is likely that they would similarly benefit from general strategies of providing standardized scripts or clinical simulations, even if asynchronous 20 . These findings informed the development of a 1-hour training to increase skill and knowledge regarding the intersection of sexual health and substance misuse (unpublished data); the in-person training of surgical fellows, residents, and attendings was engaged in discussion and role play demonstrations, thus highlighting further the need for tailored training and ongoing research.…”

Interprofessional education as a potential foundation for future team-based prevention of alcohol use disorder

“…The present study confirms and extends results from an assessment of a previous AUD-related IPE exercise at our institution that revealed significant student improvements in identifying the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) as a useful screening tool, recognizing binge drinking patterns, and understanding the biomedical consequences of AUD [ 38 ]. More recently, Pervanas and colleagues [ 39 ] conducted a formal SBIRT training exercise in an IPE setting, after which over 70% of participants (including pharmacy, nursing, medicine, behavioral health, and physician assistant students) reported being confident in their ability to screen potential substance use disorder patients and refer them to treatment. A majority of students also considered the asynchronous online-based exercise to be extremely effective in facilitating interactions and increasing knowledge of the roles and responsibilities of other health professions.…”