Substance use screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment training for emergency medicine trainees

Emergency medicine (EM) providers are in an opportunistic position to identify and intervene with patients at risk for alcohol misuse and related problems. However, alcohol screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) services are underutilized within the emergency department. Providing SBIRT training to trainees may help to increase utilization of these valuable services in the future. An SBIRT training program for EM faculty and trainees was developed and delivered to increase trainees' skills and practice of SBIRT services.

The SBIRT training program included unique tracks for medical students, physician assistant (PA) students, EM residents and faculty preceptors. Faculty and trainees completed performance measures at the end of each training session, 30 days post-training and 12 months later.

SBIRT training was provided to 238 trainees and 65 faculty members. At all follow-up time points, satisfaction of training and usefulness varied by trainee type with PA students rating constructs higher than both medical students and EM residents. At the 12-month follow-up survey, there was no significant difference in ratings of sharing the information (χ² (2)=0.38, P=0.33) between these trainees, with the majority of all trainees (96% of PA students, 83% of residents and 68% of medical students) responding that they had applied what they learned in the training to their work.

An SBIRT training curriculum for EM trainees was delivered successfully and utilized 12 months after implementation.