Making Naloxone Rescue Part of Basic Life Support Training for Medical Students

As opioid overdose deaths in the United States continue to climb, medical students must be prepared to prevent and treat opioid use disorder and opioid overdose. The administration of naloxone is an evidence-based way to reverse overdoses and save lives. At our medical school, a coalition of medical students, emergency medicine educators, and administrators worked together to permanently integrate naloxone rescue training into the Basic Life Support (BLS) curriculum required of all first-year medical students. This article outlines an argument for the integration of naloxone rescue into BLS training and an introduction to emergency medical care for medical students. The authors then describe the steps that students took to transform this program from an original pilot to a formally integrated curriculum offered to all first-year medical students. The article highlights the role of medical student advocacy in curriculum design and its potential to align medical training with community health needs, such as the ongoing opioid epidemic.