Ann Mitchell
University of Pittsburgh, USA
Title: Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) Integration into Numerous Settings and Curricula
Biography
Biography: Ann Mitchell
Abstract
Background Worldwide, over 3 million deaths result from harmful use of alcohol. Alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use and misuse are a public health problem resulting in high healthcare and societal costs. This presentation will review the implementation of screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) across multiple groups of students and settings. These include: an undergraduate nursing school curricula, five emergency departments, and within two advanced practice graduate nursing school curricula. Results of multiple measures including improvements in knowledge, skills, and attitudes will be presented. Methods A mixed-method approach was used to measure the effects of training and curriculum infusion of SBIRT into three nursing educational settings: undergraduate, professional continuing education, and advanced practice. Pre-to-post attitude surveys of nurses and nursing students towards working with individuals with alcohol or other drug problems were measured as well as knowledge post training. Results SBIRT training and education positively influenced participants attitudes towards working with individuals with alcohol or drug problems. SBIRT training and education had the most pronounced significant effect on indicators of Role Security, including role adequacy and role legitimacy (p<.05) across all types of settings. Effects on indicators of Therapeutic Commitment, including motivation and role support, varied depending upon setting. Knowledge surveys indicated a significant increase in post-training knowledge of SBIRT across all settings (p<.05). Conclusions SBIRT training and education infused into multiple settings has positive effects on nurses’ role adequacy, legitimacy, and work satisfaction. These results have policy implications, suggesting that training and educating nurses in an evidenced-based practice such as SBIRT can increase their role adequacy for providing care to individuals with alcohol and other drug use problems.