A longitudinal study of naloxone opioid overdose awareness and reversal training for first-year medical students: specific elements require reinforcement.
Publication/Presentation Date
7-2-2022
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The opioid epidemic is a progressively worsening public health crisis that continues to impact healthcare system strategies such as overdose reversal and destigmatization. Even among healthcare professionals, there remains a lack of confidence in naloxone administration and a prevalence of stigma. While training can play a major impact in reducing these shortcomings, the long-term effectiveness has yet to be characterized in training healthcare professionals. This study examined the long-term retention of opioid overdose awareness and reversal training (OOART) by evaluating performance at two-time intervals, immediately post-training and at a 3-month follow-up.
METHODS: Voluntary training was offered to first-year (M1) medical students at the Drexel University College of Medicine in 2021. At this training, 118 students completed training, 95 completed the post-training survey, and 42 completed the 3-month follow-up.
RESULTS: Opioid reversal knowledge questions assessed significantly increased scores post-training and at the 3-month follow-up. In three of the attitude questions, scores were improved at both follow-up timepoints. In addition, three attitude questions indicating a participant's confidence to respond to an opioid overdose situation increased directly after the training, but regressed at the 3-month follow-up. The remaining questions did not show any statistical difference across the survey intervals.
CONCLUSIONS: This study establishes that while OOART provides participants with the knowledge of how to respond to an opioid overdose, the retention of this knowledge at a 3-month interval is reduced. The results were mixed for longitudinal assessment of participant's attitudes toward people with opioid use disorder. Some positive increases in attitudes were retained at the 3-month interval, while others trended back toward pre-training levels. These results support the effectiveness of the training but also provide evidence that OOART must be reinforced often.
Volume
19
Issue
1
First Page
70
Last Page
70
ISSN
1477-7517
Published In/Presented At
Sandhu, R. K., Heller, M. V., Buckanavage, J., Haslund-Gourley, B., Leckron, J., Kupersmith, B., Goss, N. C., Samson, K., & Gadegbeku, A. B. (2022). A longitudinal study of naloxone opioid overdose awareness and reversal training for first-year medical students: specific elements require reinforcement. Harm reduction journal, 19(1), 70. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-022-00656-y
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences
PubMedID
35780103
Department(s)
Fellows and Residents
Document Type
Article