Innovations in Medical Education: Addiction Medicine Educational Consults
摘要
Addiction medical care is a core competency for internal medicine residents, yet most hospital systems lack an addiction medicine consult service to provide residents with practice-based learning opportunities.
AimProvide medical residents with clinical training in evidence-based approaches to treating substance use disorders.
SettingLarge, urban, academic tertiary care internal medicine residency program
ParticipantsInternal medicine residents on inpatient services
Program DescriptionCreation of an “educational consult” program where residents caring for patients with substance use disorders discuss cases with an addiction medicine provider to learn patient-relevant addiction medicine principles and management techniques
Program EvaluationOver one academic year, 44 educational consults for residents were completed involving 50 unique trainees, mostly focusing on opioid (37, 84%) and alcohol (11, 25%) related topics. Follow-up survey data showed high levels of satisfaction (average 4.9/5 using a Likert scale), with 70% of respondents (20 of 28) reporting that the consult resulted in changes to patient care and 50% of respondents (14 of 28) reporting that the consult changed their approach to future patients.
DiscussionEducational consults are a feasible tool to provide trainees at the graduate medical education level with advanced clinical exposures in settings lacking addiction medicine consult services.