Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment Training for Undergraduate Nursing Students

Alcohol and drug misuse continue to result in negative outcomes in the United States. Training nurses in screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) has been proposed as one approach to mitigating those harms. Such training can lead to improved attitudes and intention to use SBIRT in clinical practice, but whether those outcomes manifest similarly for distance or face-to-face learning has not been investigated. The current study is a quasi-experimental comparison of face-to-face and distance SBIRT education for undergraduate nursing students performed in Fall 2019. No differences in attitudes or intentions were observed between face-to-face and distance learning approaches. Self-reported competence meaningfully increased in both study arms, and there was some evidence of additional increases in perceived role legitimacy and intention to use SBIRT. To the degree that benefits are observed for SBIRT training, they may not vary between face-to-face and distance learning implementations of the same curriculum.