The AAMC Opioid Education Challenge Grant Program has selected five institutions or partnering institutions to receive an award of up to $25,000 each for opioid education training.
The awards, funded in part by the Samueli Foundation to respond to the training and development needs of academic medicals centers, were given to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Penn State College of Medicine, Robert Larner, M.D., College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, the University of Florida College of Medicine, and the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School.
Grantees will develop tools and resources to support educators in their collaborative efforts to increase faculty proficiency in the areas of pain management, opioid use disorder and substance use disorders.
At Vanderbilt, the Center for Professional Health is developing an innovative Opioid Train-The-Trainer program to equip residents to increase their confidence with opioid prescribing.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for us to demonstrate the importance of training competence in proper prescribing practices, which consists of far more than just writing a prescription,” said Charlene Dewey, MD, MEd, assistant dean for Educator Development, director of the Educator Development Program and co-director of the Center for Professional Health.
“We have developed several outstanding tools to help all prescribers — physicians, nurses, dentists — improve their performance and knowledge. Through our train-the-trainer model, we hope to empower faculty to train the next generation of prescribers to better identify the challenges of managing pain and substance misuse and abuse. We believe we can positively impact the opioid epidemic through education starting at an earlier stage in a prescriber’s medical training.”
The project team will identify and train clinical faculty as opioid prescribing champs (OPC) using a blended learning program consisting of seven web-based, self-directed learning modules followed by a seven-hour live training program on-site.
Once OPCs have completed the program, they are responsible for coordinating and implementing a one-hour training activity within their institutions for up to 10 peer faculty.
Each peer faculty member will then train up to 10 residents to increase their overall opioid prescribing competence and confidence managing patients’ pain.
Clinical faculty who serve as OPCs will be included on all related publications and presentations at workshops and local Group on Educational Affairs conferences.
