Intro: Opioids and their role in medicine, their use and abuse, have become a topic of intense scrutiny and interest over the last several years. Since 1999, the number of opioid overdose deaths has quadrupled, while the amount of prescription opioids sold in the U.S has increased by the same factor. Federal lawmakers, law enforcement, pharmaceutical companies, and investigative journalists have all become involved in what is often called “the opioid epidemic”, a stage where the issues of pain management, drug abuse, regulation, and autonomy are in seeming opposition. Physicians are uniquely positioned on this stage, both as healers and healthcare providers, professionals tasked with managing pain, preventing and treating addiction and overdose, and advocating for the needs of the population they serve. Paradoxically, issues related to pain management, addiction, and abuse are widely underrepresented in the educational curricula of most physicians’ formal training. This study aims to assess the attitudes and knowledge related to opioids in family medicine residents in a rural Appalachian residency program; as well as measure how these attitudes and knowledge change in the cohort after a limited course of education in issues surrounding opioid use, prescription, and abuse. It is our hope that this intervention will edify the residents, and they will feel more prepared to confront issues surrounding opioids as they move forward in their careers.
Methods:
Residents were given a ten-item questionnaire that assessed their knowledge of current Tennessee and Virginia state laws with regards to the prescription of opioids: The questionnaire also included an open-ended question where residents were asked to express how they felt about prescribing opioids: opinions they had formed, things they learned, things that they wished were different. Responses were uniquely identified by a paired code that abstracted the identity of the respondent from subsequent analysis. After anonymous collection of the completed questionnaire and open-ended response, a 30 minute didactic session was administered by the authors outlining common issues with opioid prescriptions, an overview of current TN and VA state law regarding opioid prescription, clinic policy, and discussion with residents of current thinking regarding best practices. The questionnaire was then administered again, responses were anonymously gathered and paired with their pre-didactic identification number. The responses were then analyzed to assess the impact of the didactic on understanding of current opioid prescribing law, and the open ended responses were examined for common themes in residents’ perception of prescribing opioids while in residency.
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Conclusions:
In general, short and focused didactic education regarding current state laws regarding opioid prescription appears to benefit residents understanding of how to prescribe opioids appropriately. Residents generally find the processes surrounding opioid prescription challenging, medically and emotionally, and are interested in more education about the topic.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:asrf-1289 |
| Date | 12 April 2019 |
| Creators | Towe, Aaron, Baker, Brent, Gach, Sarah |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Appalachian Student Research Forum |
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