Assessing Medical Student Interest in Training About Medications for Opioid Use Disorder: A Pilot Intervention

Educating medical students about buprenorphine may lessen barriers to providing treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) by addressing stigma, removing the need to complete training while practicing, and normalizing it as a pharmacological option. We conducted a needs assessment to measure student interest in buprenorphine waiver training and pilot tested an online course with an in-person discussion for feasibility and acceptability.

All 2019 graduating students were surveyed to assess interest in completing buprenorphine waiver training and understand in which format they preferred to receive the training. Interested students received information about a free online buprenorphine waiver course and an optional in-person case discussion with a faculty member. Baseline and follow-up surveys were used to assess the intervention.

Out of 228 students contacted, 173 (75.9%) responded to at least 1 survey. Of the 228, 62 (27.2%) responded to the initial survey asking students about receiving buprenorphine waiver training. The 166 non-responding students were sent a second survey, and 111 (66.9%) students responded. Of those 111, 29 (26.1%) indicated they forgot to respond to the first survey, and 24 (21.6%) did not see the survey. Of the 62 interested students, 41 students (66.1%) wanted a combination of online and in-person training. Of the 62, 30 (48.4%) interested students completed the online course and 10 (16.1%) attended the case discussion. While not significantly different, a higher proportion of students (88.9%) indicated being likely to prescribe buprenorphine after attending the case discussion than after completing the online course only (69.2%).

This assessment suggested that most of the medical students are willing to complete a buprenorphine waiver course. Feedback indicated an in-person component could increase future prescribing more than an online-only curriculum, and additional advertising could result in higher participation.