Education Utilizing Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) for Interprofessional Groups of Anesthesia Students (InGAS)

Purpose: While health care providers will be required to work interprofessionally upon graduating and entering the field, there is little education or training on this matter. In order to provide patient-centered care with optimum outcomes, health care providers must be provided with the education to work together. This lack of education may contribute to the fact that there are 23 million Americans with drug abuse problems yet 83% remain untreated. Those left untreated are at a higher risk for a multitude of comorbidities. The focus of this project is on the interprofessional training of anesthesia students, including Student Registered Nurse Anesthetists (SRNA), Dental Anesthesia Residents, Dental Students, and Dental Hygiene Students. These students will work together and use SBIRT, allowing them the exposure of working together as a team. While working together, these professionals will be able to identify patients with substance misuse, abuse, or dependence and then refer them to the appropriate treatment. 

Methods: The University of Pittsburgh partnered with the Institute for Research, Education, and Training in Addictions (IRETA). The School of Nursing and the School of Dentistry were included and then participated in the training, which included 1.5 hours of didactic instruction, online booster sessions, simulation at The Peter M. Winter Institute for Simulation, Education, and Research (WISER), and lastly, interprofessional case conferences. Both before and after the training sessions, students completed the Alcohol and Alcohol Problems Perception Questionnaire (AAPPQ), the Drug and Drug Problems Questionnaire (DDPPQ), and a measure of SBIRT and interprofessional knowledge.

Results: For both the AAPPQ and DDPPQ, role adequacy, role legitimacy, role support, and work satisfaction increased significantly from pre- to post-training, and again from post-training to post-simulation (p<0.05). None of the interprofessional attitude scales increased from pre- to post-training, but did increase after the simulation experience (p<0.05). Several baseline differences were noted between SRNAs and dental students, perhaps reflecting variations in interprofessional education between these programs.

Conclusion: The students were exposed to collaborating as a team using SBIRT and this was associated with positive changes in student’s perceptions of alcohol and drug misuse and dependency in patients. The simulation experience was associated with positive changes in attitudes toward interprofessional practice, indicating that experiential education is a critical component. Interprofessional education and practice should improve patient outcomes by providing more congruent, patient- centered care.