Motivational interviewing (MI) has been increasingly utilized by health care practitioners\nfor many years. MI has been practiced by social workers, nurses, physicians, psychologists,\nsubstance use counselors, and many other health care practitioners. Unfortunately, many health\ncare practitioners do not have adequate training in motivational interviewing, and therefore feel\nill equipped to utilize this approach when faced with clients who are in need of assessment and\ncoaching. This paper discusses our experiences with a pilot project to implement MI training\nwithin an Adolescent SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment) content addition to\nthe undergraduate nursing curriculum. It includes discussion of the evaluation, which measured\nstudent attitudes towards substance users with the Substance Use Attitudinal Survey (SAAS),\nstudent satisfaction with the newly implemented curriculum, and implications for sustainable\ninclusion of this content and simulation experiences at the undergraduate level to promote MI use\nby future health care practitioners. Pre- and post-tests (SAAS) were conducted with 51 nursing\nstudents, and 56 students completed the satisfaction survey. Overall, students were very satisfied\nwith the implementation of the curriculum, however, we did not see significant changes in SAAS\ntest scores. This may, however, be a positive indicator of a balanced attitude toward substance users.\nContinuing evaluation of the curriculum change is needed.
Loading....