Implementation and Evaluation of Primary Care Team Participation in Opioid Use Disorder Learning Sessions

Previous studies show that some primary care clinicians do not feel equipped to treat patients with opioid use disorder (OUD). This study addressed the gaps in confidence and knowledge of primary care physicians and other participants (i.e., participants who were not physicians) in diagnosing, treating, prescribing, and educating patients with OUD through interactive learning sessions.

The American Academy of Family Physicians National Research Network held monthly OUD learning sessions from September 2021 to March 2022 with physicians and other participants (n = 31) from 7 practices. Participants took baseline (n = 31), post-session (n = 11-20), and post-intervention (n = 21) surveys. Questions focused on confidence, knowledge, among others. We used non-parametric tests to compare individual responses pre-versus-post participation as well as to compare responses between groups.

All participants experienced significant changes in confidence and knowledge for most topics covered in the series. When comparing physicians to other participants, physicians had greater increases in confidence in dosing and monitoring for diversion (P = .047), but other participants had greater increases in confidence in the majority of topic areas. Physicians also had greater increases in knowledge than other participants in dosing and monitoring for safety (P = .033) and dosing and monitoring for diversion (P = .024), whereas other participants had greater increases in knowledge in most remaining topics. Participants agreed that sessions provided practical knowledge, except for relevancy of the case study portion of the session to current practice (P = .023) and the session improved participant ability to care for patients (P = .044).

Through participating in interactive OUD learning sessions, knowledge and confidence increased among physicians and other participants. These changes may impact participants' decisions to diagnose, treat, prescribe, and educate patients with OUD.