Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment Training for Undergraduate Nursing Students: A Quasi-Experimental Comparison of Distance and Face-to-Face Learning

Abstract

Alcohol and drug misuse continue to result in negative outcomes in the United States. Training nurses in screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) has been proposed as one approach to mitigating those harms. Such training can lead to improved attitudes and intention to use SBIRT in clinical practice, but whether those outcomes manifest similarly for distance or face-to-face learning has not been investigated. The current study is a quasi-experimental comparison of face-to-face and distance SBIRT education for undergraduate nursing students performed in Fall 2019. No differences in attitudes or intentions were observed between face-to-face and distance learning approaches. Self-reported competence meaningfully increased in both study arms, and there was some evidence of additional increases in perceived role legitimacy and intention to use SBIRT. To the degree that benefits are observed for SBIRT training, they may not vary between face-to-face and distance learning implementations of the same curriculum. [ Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 60 (8), 46–51.]

How do the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Technology Transfer Centers Decide What Evidence-Based Practices to Disseminate and Determine How to Do So? A Cross-Sectional Study of a National Network

“…Stated differently by hall-of-fame boxer Mike Tyson, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Even if a needs assessment indicated that a given Delivery System would most benefit from face-to-face training, there were periods in 2020 and 2021 where that simply didn’t matter. This does not mean that the learning outcomes for different modalities were necessarily the same regardless of the mode of transfer (though neither were they necessarily different - some studies have observed similar learning outcomes between online and in-person EBP instruction, e.g., [Todd et al, 2022]). It more plausibly suggests that the TTCs adapted to rapidly changing circumstances.…”