Understanding Practitioner Comfort and Educational Priorities for Safe Opioid Prescribing: A Repeated Cross-Sectional...

Area of Science:

• Pain Management
• Public Health
• Clinical Pharmacy

Background:

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued revised opioid prescribing guidelines in 2022.
• These guidelines emphasize individualized care and screening for opioid use disorder.
• Awareness and preparedness of clinicians to implement these revised guidelines are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess clinician awareness and preparedness regarding the 2022 CDC opioid prescribing guidelines.
• To evaluate perceived competence in chronic opioid management and comfort with guideline application.
• To identify variations in awareness and preparedness based on practice setting and clinician role.

Main Methods:

• A repeated cross-sectional electronic survey was administered to attendees of an annual opioid conference from 2022 to 2024.
• Survey participants included physicians, advanced practice providers, pharmacists, nurses, researchers, and administrators.
• Responses were analyzed comparing academic vs. non-academic settings, urban vs. rural locations, and different clinician roles.

Main Results:

• 72.3% of conference attendees completed the survey across the three years.
• No significant differences in guideline familiarity or competence were found between rural and urban clinicians.
• Academic clinicians were more likely to report institutional guidelines, and higher competence correlated with perceiving guideline application as requiring high expertise.

Conclusions:

• Significant differences in perceived competence exist between academic and non-academic clinicians.
• Educational initiatives are crucial for translating prescribing guidelines into practice.
• Disseminating practical guidance and targeted education can enhance safe and confident opioid prescribing.