Addiction curriculum design for medical students

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Addiction Medicine
• Obstetrics and Gynecology

Background:

• Rising mortality and morbidity from substance use disorder (SUD) in women, particularly during pregnancy and postpartum.
• The critical need to equip healthcare providers with skills for SUD identification and treatment initiation.
• Focus on improving care for pregnant women with SUD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and implement an experience-based curriculum for third-year medical students on SUD in pregnancy.
• To enhance students' knowledge, skills, and confidence in providing patient-centered care to women with SUD.
• To evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of this novel curriculum.

Main Methods:

• Third-year medical students rotated through an integrated Obstetrics/Gynecology and addiction medicine clinic.
• Curriculum included pre-clinic assignments and supervised in-clinic tasks like screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT).
• Feasibility and acceptability assessed via electronic surveys with quantitative and open-ended responses from students and teachers.

Main Results:

• The pilot curriculum was found to be feasible and acceptable to both medical students and teachers.
• High response rates (100%) for post-implementation surveys indicate strong engagement.
• The curriculum effectively provided clinical exposure and learning objectives related to SUD in pregnancy.

Conclusions:

• A novel, experience-based curriculum for SUD in pregnancy is feasible and acceptable for medical student training.
• The program aims to improve the care of pregnant women with SUD.
• Expansion to fourth-year students and adoption by other institutions is recommended.