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A longitudinal study of naloxone opioid overdose awareness and reversal training for first-year medical students: specific elements require reinforcement
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

A longitudinal study of naloxone opioid overdose awareness and reversal training for first-year medical students: specific elements require reinforcement

Reena K. Sandhu, Michael Heller, Jack Buckanavage, Benjamin Haslund-Gourley, Joshua Leckron, Brady Kupersmith, Nathaniel C. Goss, Kyle Samson and Annette B. Gadegbeku
Harm reduction journal, v 19(1), 70
02 Jul 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-022-00656-y
PMID: 35780103
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-022-00656-yView
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Life Sciences & Biomedicine Science & Technology Substance Abuse
Background: The opioid epidemic is a progressively worsening public health crisis that continues to impact healthcare system strategies such as overdose reversal and destigmatization. Even among healthcare professionals, there remains a lack of confidence in naloxone administration and a prevalence of stigma. While training can play a major impact in reducing these shortcomings, the long-term effectiveness has yet to be characterized in training healthcare professionals. This study examined the long-term retention of opioid overdose awareness and reversal training (OOART) by evaluating performance at two-time intervals, immediately post-training and at a 3-month follow-up. Methods: Voluntary training was offered to first-year (M1) medical students at the Drexel University College of Medicine in 2021. At this training, 118 students completed training, 95 completed the post-training survey, and 42 completed the 3-month follow-up. Results: Opioid reversal knowledge questions assessed significantly increased scores post-training and at the 3-month follow-up. In three of the attitude questions, scores were improved at both follow-up timepoints. In addition, three attitude questions indicating a participant's confidence to respond to an opioid overdose situation increased directly after the training, but regressed at the 3-month follow-up. The remaining questions did not show any statistical difference across the survey intervals. Conclusions: This study establishes that while OOART provides participants with the knowledge of how to respond to an opioid overdose, the retention of this knowledge at a 3-month interval is reduced. The results were mixed for longitudinal assessment of participant's attitudes toward people with opioid use disorder. Some positive increases in attitudes were retained at the 3-month interval, while others trended back toward pre-training levels. These results support the effectiveness of the training but also provide evidence that OOART must be reinforced often.

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9 citations in Web of Science
8 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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Web of Science research areas
Substance Abuse
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