Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, New Orleans, USA.
Comprehensive Alcohol-HIV/AIDS Research Center, New Orleans, USA.
BMC Med Educ. 2023 Feb 21;23(1):126. doi: 10.1186/s12909-023-04100-y.
Effective screening of alcohol use and prevention of alcohol use disorder (AUD) requires the continuous preparation of educated and confident providers across all health professions who will ideally work in close collaboration in their future practices. As one mechanism for achieving this goal, the development and provision of interprofessional education (IPE) training modules for health care students may cultivate beneficial interactions among future health providers early in their formative education.
In the present study, we assessed attitudes about alcohol and confidence in screening and AUD prevention in 459 students at our health sciences center. Students represented ten different health professions (audiology, cardiovascular sonography, dental hygiene, dentistry, medicine, nursing, physical therapy, public health, respiratory therapy, and speech language pathology programs). For purposes of this exercise, students were divided into small, professionally diverse teams. Responses to ten survey questions (Likert scale) were collected via a web-based platform. These assessments were collected before and after a case-based exercise that provided information to students on the risks of excessive alcohol use as well as the effective screening and team-based management of individuals susceptible to AUD.
Wilcoxon signed-rank analyses revealed that the exercise led to significant decreases in stigma toward individuals engaging in at-risk alcohol use. We also discovered significant increases in self-reported knowledge and confidence in personal qualifications needed to initiate brief interventions to reduce alcohol use. Focused analyses of students from individual health programs uncovered unique improvements according to question theme and health profession.
Our findings demonstrate the utility and effectiveness of single, focused IPE-based exercises to impact personal attitudes and confidence in young health professions learners. While additional longitudinal cohort follow-up studies are needed, these results may translate into more effective and collaborative AUD treatment in future clinical settings.
有效的酒精使用筛查和预防酒精使用障碍（AUD）需要不断培养所有医疗专业的有教育背景和自信的提供者，他们在未来的实践中理想地密切合作。作为实现这一目标的一种机制，为医疗保健学生开发和提供跨专业教育（IPE）培训模块可以在他们的形成教育早期培养未来医疗提供者之间的有益互动。
在本研究中，我们评估了我们健康科学中心的 459 名学生对酒精的态度和筛查以及 AUD 预防的信心。学生代表了十个不同的健康专业（听力学、心血管超声、牙科卫生、牙科、医学、护理、物理治疗、公共卫生、呼吸治疗和言语语言病理学课程）。为了进行这项研究，学生被分成了小的、专业多样化的团队。通过网络平台收集了对十个调查问题（李克特量表）的回答。这些评估是在基于案例的练习之前和之后进行的，该练习向学生提供了关于过度饮酒风险以及对 AUD 易感个体进行有效筛查和团队管理的信息。
Wilcoxon 符号秩分析显示，该练习导致对从事高风险饮酒行为的个体的污名化显著减少。我们还发现，自我报告的知识和信心在个人资格方面有显著提高，这些资格需要进行简短干预以减少饮酒。对个别健康计划学生的集中分析发现，根据问题主题和健康专业，有独特的改进。
我们的研究结果表明，单次、集中的基于 IPE 的练习对于影响年轻医疗专业学习者的个人态度和信心非常有效。虽然需要进行更多的纵向队列随访研究，但这些结果可能会转化为未来临床环境中更有效和协作的 AUD 治疗。
