Opioid Use Disorder Education in the Family Medicine Clerkships: A CERA Study

Opioid use disorder (OUD) education is crucial early in medical education in response to the overwhelming number of drug overdose deaths and the stigma attached to addiction among health care professionals. Our study aimed to examine factors associated with teaching about OUD and to determine whether OUD education has increased over the past several years.

Data were collected through a cross-sectional survey of 173 US and Canadian family medicine clerkship directors in summer 2024. Survey items included clerkship directors' perceived importance, presence of current OUD education, and perceived barriers to OUD education.

The response rate was 52.6% (91/173). Nine participants did not complete the addiction medicine questions and were excluded from analyses. Nearly three-fourths of clerkship directors thought teaching OUD was important, but 45% of clerkships did not include any OUD education. Approximately one-third of clerkship didactics covered screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT; 40.2%); diagnosis of OUD (42.7%); pharmacological treatment of OUD (37.8%); and opioid overdose prevention education (31.7%). Lack of time in the curriculum was the most commonly perceived barrier to OUD education in clerkship.

Clerkships were more likely to include OUD education if clerkship directors perceived OUD education as important or had faculty with expertise to teach OUD. Our survey revealed an increase in the inclusion of OUD education in family medicine clerkships over the past several years. Designing the addiction medicine curricula specifically for medical student education may contribute to enhancing OUD education.