The Effects of Screening Brief Intervention Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) Training on Health Professional Trainees’ Regard, Attitudes, and Beliefs toward Patients who use Substances

Abstract

Background: Screening Brief Intervention Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) was developed as an integrated and comprehensive public health approach that includes early screening and intervention to address substance use in a variety of health care settings. Research suggests that SBIRT is effective in reducing substance use in individuals whose use places them at higher risk for negative health and social consequences. However, less is known about how training in SBIRT modifies attitudes, regard, and beliefs toward people who use substances. Methods: Participants included 461 students from a variety of healthcare related disciplines (physician assistant, nurse practitioner, pharmacy, psychiatry and psychology, and medical students). Participants were evaluated using a pre-post design to assess changes in regard, attitudes, and beliefs by completing the Short Alcohol and Alcohol Problems Perception Questionnaire, the Drug Problem Perception Questionnaire, the Medical Condition Regard Scale, and the Short Understanding of Substance Abuse Scale before and after a 7-hour SBIRT training program. We hypothesized that trainees would have more positive regard, attitudes, and beliefs toward people who use substances following training in SBIRT relative to a baseline assessment and that there would be between program differences. Results: Results were consistent with hypotheses and suggested that trainees had significantly more positive regard and changes in attitudes and beliefs toward working with patients who use substances following training in SBIRT. Results also suggested significant differences by training group at baseline and at 30-day follow up. Conclusions: Overall, the findings suggest that an important additional benefit of SBIRT is the impact it has on mitigating healthcare professional trainees’ negative regard and modifying attitudes and beliefs toward those who use substances.

Stigma Against Patients With Substance Use Disorders Among Health Care Professionals and Trainees and Stigma-Reducing Interventions: A Systematic Review

“…Pre-post studies with SBIRT training as the intervention (6 studies) found mixed results among trainees (and in 1 study with HCPs) 30,34–36,38,47 . Two studies found reductions in stigma, 34,47 whereas 1 study found no change 38 .…”

“…Pre-post studies with SBIRT training as the intervention (6 studies) found mixed results among trainees (and in 1 study with HCPs) 30,34–36,38,47 . Two studies found reductions in stigma, 34,47 whereas 1 study found no change 38 . In 3 studies that used multiple stigma scales or looked at stigma against multiple conditions, findings were mixed between SUD and stigma scales 30,35,36 …”

“…We reviewed 201 full-text articles and excluded 167. We included 32 unique articles: 17 prevalence studies (in 17 articles) and 15 intervention studies (in 16 articles) 17–48 . Two articles described shorter- and longer-term outcomes of the same intervention study 24,25 .…”

“…No change between intervention and control groups AAPPQ Motivation subscale (measures attitudes toward working with patients who use alcohol) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Lukowitsky et al, 34 2022…”

Improving the quality of antenatal screening and early intervention for alcohol and other drug use: protocol for a multi-stage approach to systems reform

“…For this study, the MCRS will be split into three separate questionnaires which assessed midwives' attitudes towards women who use alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs while pregnant respectively. The scale has been used previously and has been validated for use in nursing and midwifery contexts [29,30].…”