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Expanding treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) is critical to help address the opioid overdose epidemic. While there have been positive developments in increasing access to buprenorphine and other medications for OUD (MOUD), the rising overdose death rates in Colorado - particularly among non-White populations - signal a need for enhanced provider training. In response to this public health crisis, we aim to develop and pilot a standardized patient (SP) training program with an eye to substance use - including opioid, tobacco, and alcohol use - through a health equity lens. SPs are independent specialists trained to portray patient scenarios for the instruction and assessment of clinical skills of health professions trainees. The use of SPs facilitates learner practice in critical thinking, patient safety, crisis management, team interaction, decision making, and communication skills. SPs are a near-universal feature of health professions education and training. The goal is to equip SPs with the skills to effectively simulate patient encounters around substance use across a diverse patient population, and to provide effective feedback to the learner upon exercise completion. We aim to integrate the SP expertise into each degree curriculum at CU Anschutz through the Center for Advancing Professional Excellence (CAPE), where all the degree programs at CU Anschutz Medical Campus train clinically in controlled settings with SP encounters. The Professional Standardized Patient Equity Curriculum Training in the Use of Substances (ProSPECTUS) is designed to scale for packaging, distribution, marketing, and implementation at health professions education programs everywhere, free of charge, in the Open Educational Resources (OER) ecosystem. We intend to prioritize access to other SAMHSA PCSS-U grantees access to beta versions of the program. In addition to SP training, we aim to increase provision of evidence-based substance use disorder (SUD) management in a variety of settings for learners at CU Anschutz Medical Campus through didactic and experiential learning programs. We plan to build on the successful momentum of the Interprofessional Clinical Opioid Use Disorder (ICLOUD) Curriculum - funded by SAMHSA TI-082556 - which has trained over 150 MD, NP, and PA students using the 8-hour PCSS buprenorphine training curriculum. Our goal is to provide buprenorphine trainings in high yield graduate medical education programs based on their specialty, with an emphasis on management of adolescent substance use. We also plan to partner with the campus wide Interprofessional Addiction Medicine Student Interest Group to support their efforts in providing experiential learning opportunities for students on campus, including (but not limited to) field trips to county drug court, career panels in addiction medicine, and Narcan trainings. We aim to conduct a pre-post survey analysis on knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors around caring for patients with SUD, as well as patients from disadvantaged populations. This curriculum program will help ensure Colorado graduates are able, willing, and ready to provide care for patients with substance use disorders, cementing the University of Colorado's status as a leader in the field of health equity and substance use disorder training.

The PCSS-U South Dakota project’s primary goal will be to increase access to OUD and SUD treatment across South Dakota with an emphasis on treatment in rural and underserved areas. To accomplish this goal, USD will develop and implement an experience-oriented opioid use disorder and substance use disorder curriculum. This curriculum will provide USD’s medical and physician assistant studies students with the knowledge and confidence to diagnose and treat opioid use disorder and other substance use disorders. This curriculum will be developed in partnership with the Center for Family Medicine in Sioux Falls which has years of experience treating opioid and other substance use disorders in the state. They will also assist USD with integrating medication for opioid use training into our other residency programs. USD will also host an annual DATA waiver training for the medical and PA students to make them “waiver ready” upon graduation. Finally, USD will work to increase recruitment and retention of substance use providers in the state by developing a resource hub and offering continuing education through an annual conference on substance abuse.

Advanced Practice Nurses' Opioid Use Disorder Education Through a Massive Open Online Course (APROUD-MOOC) The proposed project will have both a local and national reach through various virtual delivery platforms. The Advanced Practice NuRses' Opioid Use Disorder Education Through a Massive Open Online Course (APROUD-MOOC) is designed to inform nurse practitioner (NP) students and those in residencies with evidence-based treatment strategies and empower them with practical training that is recovery and trauma-informed. Through the APROUD-MOOC, NPs will obtain the knowledge and skills to treat opioid use disorders (OUD) and prescribe medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). This project builds upon our currently funded SAMHSA project, the Nurses' Substance Use Education through a Massive Open Online Course or NSUE-MOOC, which provides substance use (SU) education across levels of nursing education, from undergraduate to advanced practice, and is a resource posted on the SAMHSA Addictions Technology Transfer Center. In addition to creating the APROUD-MOOC, we will amend the existing NSUE-MOOC as we compare it to the content in the Comprehensive and Addiction Recovery Act (CARA). There are 36,000 NP students who graduate each year, and over 355,000 NPs who interface daily with individuals who have a SUD and OUD; however, they often have limited training specific to interacting with these populations. Utilizing Purdue University technology strengths, we will create the APROUD-MOOC and provide comprehensive, adaptable, and sustainable education to NPs in various specialty areas, including psychiatric mental health, adult-gerontology, and family nurse practitioner programs. We will implement a field experience at PSON during which NPs will, at a minimum, shadow practitioners in assessing and prescribing MOUD. In response to the funding announcement, our goals are: 1) to develop, launch and evaluate OUD/MOUD education delivered through the APROUD-MOOC so that nurse educators can integrate these materials into their existing curricula and residency programs; 2) to map and amend the existing SAMHSA-funded NSUE-MOOC when compared with the CARA content; and 3) to partner with local healthcare providers to offer practical training to PSON NP students and, at the national level, provide instructions for collaborating schools on how to provide such training. Faculty from Purdue and the partnering schools will select modules from the MOOCs to incorporate into their existing curricula for course credit or as a supplemental learning opportunity. Through these modules, we will offer recovery-based, trauma-informed education for NPs so that they may competently provide care in office-based MOUD treatment. To accomplish these goals, our objectives are: 1) to incorporate evidence-based SU and OUD content, integrating recovery, health equity, and trauma-informed principles of care into the MOOCs; 2) to establish and sustain a community Education/Advisory Council of APNs who prescribe MOUD and who will provide field experiences for PSON students and feedback on educational content; 3) to collaborate with experts in technological educational innovations to build pedagogically sound, engaging, high-quality modules that are available within both the NSUE-MOOC and APROUD-MOOC and that may be integrated into a variety of nursing curriculums; and 4) to capture appropriate utility metrics, including PSON student and faculty feedback and edit the MOOCs' content accordingly. Combining the PSON and our collaborating schools, we anticipate our modules will reach approximately 2,000 NP students per year. In this way, graduating NPs will be more informed on the assessment and treatment of people who struggle with SU and OUD, and thus, provide compassionate, recovery oriented, trauma-informed bedside and advanced care to individuals.