Training health professional students in adolescent SBIRT using an online module Adolescent SBIRT

Abstract

An interprofessional course on SBIRT for undergraduate and graduate allied health students (n = 159) offered a four-hour online module on how to implement SBIRT for adolescents. The first half of the module was an online unit with information on SBIRT developed by experts, available for free in the public domain. The other half was a virtual simulation that allowed students to practice implementing SBIRT with adolescents. The objectives of this study were to assess how professionally competent students who completed the module (n  =78) felt in performing SBIRT related aspects when working with an adolescent (pre-posttest) and how the training impacted their future practice as compared to those students who did not take the module (control group). The module was found to be successful in increasing competency in practice for adolescent SBIRT. Further, the students who completed the module were more likely to individualize substance use-related care based on factors such as age, gender and race/ethnicity (t (57) = -3.167, p = 0.002), compared to those who did not. The study demonstrates that using reliable, vetted resources to create modules can aid in assisting educators in creating new course content while contributing to targeted learning outcomes.