Opioid Use Disorder Curriculum: Preclerkship Pharmacology Case-Based Learning Session

Abstract

Introduction During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, over 93,000 Americans lost their lives to a preventable overdose. Medications for opioid use disorder (OUD) have been shown to decrease mortality in OUD but are underutilized. Through this case-based learning exercise, first-year medical students applied physiologic and pharmacologic principles to the diagnosis and treatment of OUD. Methods Faculty facilitated a case discussion over a 1-hour large-group case-based learning (CBL) session. Facilitators utilized PowerPoint slides to illustrate graphs and figures while discussing the case. To evaluate students on the CBL learning objectives, three pharmacology exam questions were administered; students also evaluated the CBL's effectiveness in meeting educational objectives on three Likert-scale questions and via open-ended feedback. Results First-year medical students ( n = 200) completed the CBL. The mean score on the exam questions was 91%. Students agreed or strongly agreed that the CBL was an effective way to learn pharmacology principles (69%), that it reinforced pharmacologic fundamentals (70%), and that it showed how pharmacology fundamentals were important in the real world of clinical medicine (86%). Qualitative feedback on the CBL was generally positive, including satisfaction with the small-group setting and practical applications of pharmacology to clinical practice. Discussion This CBL exercise contains content critical for preparing students to combat the modern opioid epidemic. The exercise provides an opportunity for learners to review fundamental pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic principles so as to ready them for clinical clerkships and beyond.

Integrating Persons With Lived Experience in Opioid Use Disorder Education: A Small Group Exercise and Patient Panel

“…The pharmacology case, also delivered in the preclinical phase of the curriculum, sought to educate medical students on the pharmacology and physiologic effects of opioids, as well as the pharmacology and clinical application of lifesaving MOUD. 28 The curriculum culminates in the internal medicine clerkship case in which students participated in an Objective Structural Clinical Examination (OSCE) that provided the opportunity to synthesize principles from the preclinical cases to record and document a patient history for a patient with OUD using non-stigmatizing language, to recommend treatment options for people with OUD and complications of injection drug use, and to apply harm reduction strategies to their treatment. 29 The session described herein as well as the curriculum overall focused on helping medical students foster empathy for people who use drugs and recognize the stigma patients face in their healthcare experiences.…”

“…This session served as the first part of a longitudinal opioid use disorder educational curriculum implemented in our medical school. This session would later be followed by sessions on opioid use disorder in pharmacology 28 and the internal medicine clerkship. 29 Our small group patient panel session described in this manuscript was innovative in its centering on harm reduction and delivery with a panel of persons who use drugs.…”

Opioid Use Disorder Curriculum: Medicine Clerkship Standardized Patient Case, Small-Group Activity, and Patient Panel

“…We sought to increase students’ knowledge and skills regarding these traditionally overlooked topics by exposing students to them multiple times over their education. Using the grant, we developed educational tools, including a case-based discussion on opioid pharmacology for the basic science curriculum 18 ; a case of medication treatment of OUD and harm reduction for the neuroscience unit; and the OSCE, case-based discussion, and patient panel for the medicine clerkship described in this report.…”

Building a Hospital Pharmacist Workforce by a Diversified and Position-Oriented Learning System

“…In response to these limitations, some hospitals have experimented with new training models, including problem-based learning 12 and case-based learning. 13 , 14 However, these methods are primarily utilized by pharmaceutical students and clinical pharmacists and are tailored to address specific issues in pharmaceutical practice. Although these models offer advancements in certain areas, they still need to fully meet the comprehensive training needs of multi-specialty pharmacists.…”