Automating individualized coaching and authentic role-play practice for brief intervention training.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Behavioral Science
• Public Health

Background:

• Brief intervention is effective for alcohol abuse but requires accessible clinician training.
• Current training methods may lack cost-effectiveness and scalability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate STAR Workshop, a web-based system, for training the Engage for Change (E4C) brief intervention protocol.
• To compare STAR Workshop's efficacy against a web-based e-book and a no-treatment control group.

Main Methods:

• Medical and nursing students were assigned to STAR Workshop, e-book, or control conditions.
• Skill performance was assessed using written probes pre-training, post-training, and post-delay (2 weeks).
• Live phone interviews with a standardized patient were conducted post-delay to evaluate practical application.

Main Results:

• STAR Workshop participants demonstrated significantly better performance on skill probes than both other groups.
• Improvement from pre-training to post-training and post-delay probes was significantly greater for STAR Workshop users.
• STAR Workshop participants achieved significantly higher scores in post-delay standardized patient interviews.

Conclusions:

• STAR Workshop provides an accessible and cost-effective method for training clinicians in the E4C protocol for alcohol abuse brief intervention.
• The system shows potential for training other clinical interviewing protocols, improving healthcare delivery.