Breaking Bias: An Interprofessional Approach to Reducing Stigma Towards Patients With Substance Use Disorders in Health Professions Education

Introduction: Addressing substance use disorders (SUD) stigma via interprofessional collaboration prior to patient exposure may empower more students to provide care to people with SUD (PwSUD) across settings. Objective: To assess the impact of a SUD interprofessional educational program (SUD-IPEP) on medical (MS) and pharmacy students' (PS) attitudes about SUD treatment efficacy and personal characteristics of PwSUD. Methods: Between February and March 2022, 288 students completed two self-study components and an active learning component. A 13-item perception survey was administered pre-IPEP and immediately post-IPEP. The survey consisted of five positive statements about treatment efficacy (e.g., treatment is effective and worth the effort) and the desired response was an increase in agreement with these statements. The remaining items were negative statements about the personal characteristics of PwSUD (e.g., these patients overuse health care resources and provide nothing in return) and the desired response was an increase in disagreement. Differences between subgroups (sex and race/ethnicity) were investigated. A third survey about the program's usefulness was administered 30 days post-IPEP. Results: The response rate to the pre- and post-intervention surveys was 63.5%. At pre-intervention, there was agreement with positive statements, with no differences among subgroups. At post-intervention, PS showed a significant increase in agreement with statements about treatment efficacy. At pre-intervention, there was disagreement with negative statements about PwSUD, especially by females, MS, and Whites. No changes in perceptions were observed post-intervention for any group. Thirty-eight students completed the 30-day survey and 92% believed the SUD-IPEP benefited their professional development and/or practice, while 97% expected to continue using the information in the future. Conclusions: Participation in the SUD-IPEP resulted in a general improvement in students' perceptions towards this patient population. Future studies should include whether additional educational components can help shift perceptions to reduce stigma towards PwSUD.