Abstract | April 14, 2023

Harm Reduction Curricula Integration into Medical Education: A Student-led Effort to Increase Knowledge of Substance Use Disorders and Decrease Stigma

Marinna Smith, BS

Savannah Fuchs, BS, Medical Student, 3rd Year, University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, Greenville, SC; Zachary Jasper, BA, Medical Student, 3rd Year, University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, Greenville, SC; Marinna Smith, BS, Medical Student, 2nd year, University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, Greenville, SC; Elias Wheibe, BS, 3rd Year, University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, Greenville, SC

Learning Objectives

  1. Upon completion of this lectures, learners should be better prepared to identify the importance of harm reduction and recognize its role in the treatment of substance use disorder.
  2. Upon completion of this lectures, learners should be better prepared to emphasize the benefit of teaching about substance use disorder early in a medical student's career, including education on how to utilize harm reduction strategies with patients
  3. Upon completion of this lectures, learners should be better prepared to explain how education regarding substance use disorder can facilitate discussions surrounding bias, stigma, and conscious professionalism within the medical field.

Introduction: Substance use disorder, or SUD, is a leading health issue in society. It is linked to other health conditions such as liver cirrhosis, cognitive impairment, and cardiac valve disease. The concept of harm reduction revolves around strategies that help to reduce the negative impacts of substance use, and it is an integral part of SUD treatment. Harm reduction approaches currently used to address SUD include syringe service programs, which decrease transmission of diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C, and the distribution of Narcan/naloxone, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. There is limited literature on harm reduction education in medical education, despite the evidence-based benefits associated with its use.

Goals and Objectives: Students at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville identified the need to educate medical students early in their career about the utility of harm reduction, especially within the context of SUD. They sought to integrate this material into the M1 curriculum to complement their basic science education.

Methods: Students created a curriculum proposal that was presented to leadership at the School of Medicine Greenville. The proposal focused on the integration of harm reduction education, general knowledge regarding SUD, and methods of disease prevention into the M1 clinical skills curriculum. M1 students will learn the importance of motivational interviewing along with learning how to lead a patient-centered conversation. The curriculum involves standardized patient encounters, where M1 students interact with patients who have SUD. This allows them to implement the motivational interviewing techniques they have learned with a focus on providing harm reduction services (such as access to Narcan/naloxone, syringe services, etc.) to this patient population. Next Steps: Students will create pre and post surveys to better understand the efficacy of the curriculum in regards to M1 students beliefs and knowledge about SUD and harm reduction. They also hope to increase the frequency of SUD and harm reduction education within their medical school by starting conversations about these topics early in students’ education. Lessons learned from this activity could be generalizable and replicated by other medical education institutions.

 

References

SAMHSA is a good resource for more information on substance use and harm reduction: https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/harm-reduction




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