Substance use–related continuing education course objectives: Alignment with professional competencies

Abstract

Background: Novel educational efforts are needed to prepare the current and future interprofessional health care workforce to address the range of substance use–related health problems. A 6-module massive open online course (MOOC) was developed to provide education to health professionals of various disciplines on the fundamentals of substance use–related treatment. The purpose of this project was to match course objectives to substance use–related competencies for 5 disciplines: nurses, pharmacists, physicians, physician assistants (PA), and social workers. Methods: Content expert raters within each discipline determined what Association for Multidisciplinary Education and Research in Substance use and Addiction (AMERSA) core competencies were matched to each objective for the 6 modules of the MOOC. The number of objectives across the 6 modules was summated. Results: All nursing and social work competencies were mapped to the course objectives. For physicians, PAs, and pharmacists, the proportions of knowledge-based competencies that mapped to the course objective were 58%, 76%, and 80%, respectively, and proportions of skill-based competencies that mapped to the course objective were 88%, 83%, and 75%, respectively. For those 3 groups, 100% of attitude-based competencies mapped to the course objective. Conclusions: The competency-based mapping with the MOOC objectives supports the interprofessional design of the course and discipline-specific competencies needed to promote the best outcomes for patients.

Keywords:

• Continuing education
• health personnel
• substance-related disorders
• workforce
• delivery of health care
• interprofessional

Author contributions

Deborah S. Finnell: conceptualization, project administration, investigation, methodology, writing–original draft preparation, and writing–review and editing. Victoria Soltis-Jarrett: investigation and writing–review and editing. Jeffrey Bratberg: investigation and writing–review and editing. Andrew Muzyk: investigation and writing–review and editing. Yifei Liu: investigation and writing–review and editing. Ellen Edens: conceptualization, funding acquisition, investigation, writing–original draft preparation, and writing–review and editing. J. Paul Seale: investigation and writing–review and editing. Jill Mattingly: investigation and writing–review and editing. Kristen Schnurman: investigation and writing–review and editing. Victoria Osborne-Leute: investigation, writing–review and editing. Allen Zweben: investigation and writing–review and editing. Ann Cary: writing–original draft preparation and writing–review and editing. Brent Moore: conceptualization, methodology, data curation, writing–original draft preparation, and writing–review and editing.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the partnering organizations, the Advisory Board members, and the schools that have provided this course to their students.

Additional information

Funding

This initiative was made possible by the Yale-Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning and by the Expansion of Interprofessional Healthcare Practitioner SUD Education grant #1H79FG000023 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and grant #3H79TI081968-02S1 from SAMHSA. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. The funding organizations had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.