Determining the Best Time to Integrate Opioid Use Disorder Training into the Curriculum Based on Student Perceptions

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Pharmacology
• Addiction Medicine

Background:

• Opioid prescribing education (OPE) and opioid addiction education (OAE) are crucial for physician assistant (PA) students.
• The optimal timing for delivering OPE and OAE within PA curricula remains understudied.
• Existing literature suggests the clinical phase may be ideal, but comparative data is lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of OPE and OAE timing on PA students' confidence in managing opioid use disorder (OUD).
• To compare perceived confidence levels between didactic and clinical phase PA students receiving identical OUD training.

Main Methods:

• A pilot study comparing didactic and clinical phase PA student cohorts.
• Assessed perceived confidence in evaluating patients with OUD before and after standardized training.
• Utilized identical OUD-focused patient simulations for both groups.

Main Results:

• Clinical phase students reported high confidence both pre- and post-simulation.
• Didactic phase students' confidence levels significantly increased post-simulation, becoming comparable to clinical phase students.
• The training intervention was effective in both educational phases.

Conclusions:

• PA students benefit from OPE and OAE regardless of curriculum phase.
• Findings support the integration of OUD training in both didactic and clinical phases of PA programs.
• This research encourages PA programs to incorporate timely opioid-related education.