Sharing Our Journey: Implementing a Multicounty Substance Use Prevention Program in Area Schools.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Nursing Education
• Adolescent Health

Background:

• Rising adolescent substance use necessitates effective prevention strategies.
• Community assessments identified a critical need for ongoing substance use prevention programs.
• School nurses play a vital role in advocating for child health and leading health initiatives.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe an interprofessional, evidence-based, nurse-led substance use prevention program.
• To explore university health science students' perceptions of their training and program implementation.
• To present a model for school nurses to establish university partnerships for community health needs.

Main Methods:

• A 4-year implementation of the 'Say It Straight' program in school settings.
• Interprofessional student teams from nursing, psychology, public health, and social work delivered the program.
• Feedback was collected from students on training usefulness, program strengths, and weaknesses.

Main Results:

• The program targeted elementary and middle school-aged children over six weeks with weekly 45-minute lessons.
• Student feedback provided insights into the most valuable aspects of the training.
• Identified strengths and weaknesses of the program implementation model were documented.

Conclusions:

• The nurse-led, interprofessional program effectively addressed adolescent substance use prevention.
• Student feedback is crucial for refining training and implementation strategies.
• This project serves as a replicable model for school nurses to foster university-school partnerships in health promotion.