Integrated Education Reduces Negative Attitudes Toward Persons with Substance Use Disorders: A Pilot Study.

Educational practices to reduce negative attitudes toward persons with substance use disorders (SUD) are urgently needed for undergraduate nursing students, but few studies have examined their long term effectiveness. In this pilot, consenting students completed the Drug and Drug Problems Perception Questionnaire (DDPPQ) anonymously online, before and 1 year after integrated curricular content about SUD. Pretest scores were significantly higher than posttest, indicating higher negative attitudes toward persons with SUD before the integrated content. Time main effect was statistically significant. To our knowledge, this is the first report examining long-term effects of an educational intervention with reinforcement in multiple courses over time upon the attitudes of undergraduate nursing students toward persons with SUD.