Retention of Student Pharmacists’ Knowledge and Skills regarding Overdose Management with Naloxone

Abstract

P2 students did not demonstrate superior retention of information regarding naloxone and opioid use disorder on survey questions compared with P1 students. There was a trend towards P2 students feeling more confident in their ability to counsel patients for overdose prevention and reporting disagreement with the statement that "overdose prevention for people who use drugs is a waste of time and money" compared with the P1 students, but these did not reach statistical significance. Since the opioid crisis continues unabated, naloxone training using OSCE and didactic methods remain an ongoing required part of the pharmacy curriculum.

Pharmacist roles, training, and perceived barriers in naloxone dispensing: A systematic review

“…Programs with skills assessment have resulted in increased confidence in identifying patients with risk of overdose, dispensing naloxone, and communicating with patients. [53][54][55] In addition to standardizing training for practicing pharmacists, education on naloxone and safe opioid use should be integrated into schools of pharmacy. Knowledge about prescription opioid overdose and skills to help patients through overdose counseling are core competencies of pharmacists that can be achieved by education and training at student and pharmacist levels.…”

“…Five studies examined education and training programs that have been conducted in schools of pharmacy across the country. 38,[52][53][54][55] Programs included a live or recorded lecture on opioid overdose and naloxone training or integration of training into skills laboratory courses. Improvements in student confidence in counseling resulted across the studies.…”

Community Pharmacist Utilization of Legislation That Allows Impact on the Opioid Crisis in the State of Minnesota: A Mixed-Methods Approach

“…One-time workshops or lessons have been shown to inadequately cover the range of knowledge required to expertly provide care for patients with substance use disorders and were associated with poor retention of knowledge gained. 39 Four-year, progressive education focused on opioids and substance use disorders allow these topics the time they need to ensure that graduating and practicing pharmacists are prepared to engage with their communities to effectively address the opioid crisis. 40…”

Evaluating Pharmacy Student Consultations with Standardized Patients on Opioid Medication Use and Opioid-Specific Risks

“…Skill rehearsal with standardized patients, self-evaluations of their own taped encounters and supportive peer evaluations will be used in smallgroup peer feedback sessions following social cognitive theory based approaches to increase self-efficacy. 26 Building on the work of others who are developing communication training programs regarding naloxone and opioid use, safety, and monitoring, 9,17,18 there is a need for more structured instruction to train students to communicate specifically regarding sensitive topics associated with opioid medications. These findings may translate to other schools of pharmacy, as curriculum regarding pain management and opioid communication are lacking among schools of pharmacy nationwide.…”

“…5 While training programs have been developed for naloxone consultation, opioid use, safety, and monitoring, they do not fully address strategies for communicating specifically about sensitive topics related to opioid dependence or overdose. 9,17,18 To our knowledge, no published research has analyzed videotaped pharmacist-patient encounter data regarding opioids, nor analyzed videotaped pharmacy student communication with standardized patients. In this study we analyzed video-recorded pharmacy students' consultations with standardized patients regarding opioid medication use and safety as part of a quality improvement initiative for a required communication skills laboratory course for third-year pharmacy students.…”