Development of Addiction Medicine Selective Curriculum
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Publication Date
2025
Abstract
Context or Background: Substance use disorder is a growing program across America. It is important that we as primary care physicians are well trained and comfortable treating these conditions. ACGME has also prioritized this area of resident learning. In order to both create better educated doctors and also follow guidelines placed by the ACGME, we have worked to develop an addiction medicine focused four weeks selective to increase resident comfort in diagnosing and treating patients with substance use disorders. Goals and Objectives: To increase resident comfort with diagnosing and treating patients with substance use disorders across the lifespan and in multi-ple settings Methods: a literature review was completed and following this, a curriculum was developed with the goal of including multiple settings, patient populations, and use disorders. We utilized existing residency experiences such as our ItMatters program for patients in our own clinics with substance use disorder, as well as Project Nuture which treats pregnancy and post-partum women with substance use disorder. We will continue our existing relationship with addiction medicine inpatient consult services at PPMC. We also expanded to integrate working with Clackamas County health regarding their sublocade clinic and working with their behavioral health staff. We will also be including time at Great Circle, which is a program focused on treating Native America and First people with substance use disorder. Finally, we will also plan to utilize online modules and resident teaching opportunities to round out the selective experience. Assessment methods or Results: The curriculum will be implemented in the 2024-2025 academic year. Currently, there are 9 residents who have signed up for the addiction medicine selective for the next year who will complete pre and post surveys to assess if the selective has met objectives and increased resident comfort and knowledge when caring for patients with substance use disorder. Discussion/Conclusions/Next Steps: To develop an addiction medicine curriculum that will increase provider comfort across multiple settings, the new curriculum needs to include resident exposure to multiple settings. With our new curriculum, this includes inpatient consult management, outpatient management and working with a variety of patient populations including pregnant and patients of different ethnic backgrounds. Having a month-long focus on this information in a variety of settings aims to improve resident confidence and comfort with treating a variety of substance use disorders including alcohol use disorder, opiate use disorder, tobacco use disorder, and stimulant use disorder. For the next steps, the curriculum will be initiated and evaluated by each resident who completes the selective. Each resident who participates in the selective will be asked to complete a pre and post survey to assess academic and clinical growth when treating people with substance use disorders. Further adjustments may be made to the curriculum based on feed-back and rotation availability.
Specialty/Research Institute
Graduate Medical Education
