Substance Abuse-Specific Knowledge Transfer or Loss? Treatment Program Turnover versus Professional Turnover Among Substance Abuse Clinicians

Abstract

This longitudinal study investigated the extent to which substance abuse (SA) clinician turnover is associated with SA-specific knowledge loss due to change in professions (professional turnover) versus SA-specific knowledge transfer due to movement from one SA clinical setting to another (treatment program turnover). For this study, clinicians had to voluntarily leave their current treatment program. Eligible clinicians completed a quantitative survey while employed and a qualitative post-employment exit interview 1 year later. Compared to those that exited the SA profession (N = 99), clinicians who changed treatment programs (N = 120) had greater SA-specific formal knowledge and were more likely to be personally in recovery. No differences were found between the two groups in terms of SA-specific practical knowledge.

Organization-Level Factors Associated with Changes in the Delivery of the Five A’s for Smoking Cessation following the Implementation of a Comprehensive Tobacco-Free Workplace Program within Substance Use Treatment Centers

“…Consequently, longer-term follow-up may be needed within substance use treatment centers implementing a tobacco-free workplace program to ensure that changes in addressing patients' tobacco use are sustained over time. This is especially relevant given the high rates of provider turnover in these settings [63][64][65][66]. The current study also did not have any statistically significant findings related to advising individuals to quit smoking or arranging follow-up with patients to see how the quit attempt progressed (or to encourage another quit attempt).…”

“…Data collection was anonymous to maintain provider privacy and encourage honest responding. Moreover, given the known rates of turnover at substance use treatment centers [63][64][65][66] that were anecdotally evident during this program's implementation, it is likely that some (but unknown exact) proportion of the different providers participated in the pre-versus the post-implementation survey procedures. Providers had about 3 weeks to respond to the survey requests; completion reminders were sent weekly within that timeframe.…”

“…The results may differ based on the number of centers enrolled and the geographic locations of these centers. However, conducting analyses at the organizational level provides aggregate data, reducing the possibility that high turnover rates (a known problem within substance use treatment centers [63][64][65][66]) may introduce bias. Second, changes over time in the independent variables were generally small (~4%), which may affect the statistical power necessary to detect associations.…”

Cross-lagged relations between mentoring received from supervisors and employee OCBs: Disentangling causal direction and identifying boundary conditions.

“…Data for this project were collected as part of a larger multiyear study. Although none of the relationships examined here are reported in previously published research and the sample of matched supervisor-employee dyads is unique to this study, there are other publications using various subsamples of this (and another companion) longitudinal dataset (Baranik, Roling, & Eby, 2010;Butts, Hurst, & Eby, 2013;Curtis & Eby, 2010;Eby, Burk, & Maher, 2010;Eby, Laschober, & Curtis, 2014;Eby & Rothrauff-Laschober, 2012;Laschober & de Tormes Eby, 2013;Laschober, de Tormes Eby, & Sauer, 2012;Laschober, Eby, & Kinkade, 2013;Rothrauff, Eby, & the Public Health Service, 2011;Rothrauff-Laschober, Eby, & Sauer, 2013;Spell, Eby, & Vandenberg, 2014). Twenty-six behavioral health care organizations provided data for the study (26% in the East, 11% in the Midwest, 26% in the South, and 37% in the West).…”

Changes in Substance Use Treatment Providers’ Delivery of the 5A’s for Non-Cigarette Tobacco Use in the Context of a Comprehensive Tobacco-Free Workplace Program Implementation

“…Anecdotally, some centers had as few as 5 providers. High rates of provider turnover at SUTCs during the implementation process were expected [50][51][52][53]; therefore, it is likely that some proportion of providers participated in only the pre-or post-implementation survey, whereas some proportion participated in both data collections. Based on the anonymous nature of data collection, pre-and post-implementation surveys could be matched only at the SUTC level and not at the provider level.…”