Evaluation of an online SBIRT training program

ABSTRACT

Background: While human ecosystem disruptions have happened in the past, the COVID-19 pandemic is the first situation to warrant such a large, world-wide transition to online education. The pandemic has increased the need for intervention with people in varying stages of substance use disorders.

Objectives: In response to the need for more evidence-based, online educational and training options to address this need, this study used pre-posttest evaluations to determine the efficacy of an online training for a specific evidence-based intervention, Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Services (SBIRT).

Methods: Social Work students from two universities completed a 4-hour, online training in SBIRT which included a pre/posttest, demographic variables, a satisfaction scale, and a measure of self-efficacy. Mixed Effects Linear regression was used to model the repeated measures of SBIRT knowledge and efficacy, while a linear regression model was used to measure the relationship between satisfaction and participant characteristics.

Results: Participants were mostly female (85.9%), mostly White/Caucasian (72.9%), and most already had a bachelor’s degree (50%) or higher (9.6%). Individuals who were White, non-Hispanic/Latinx, or had master’s level or doctoral level mental health training were more likely to have higher SBIRT scores. Those with the highest levels of self-efficacy had the lowest change scores on the knowledge test. Overall, there was an almost threefold increase in SBIRT knowledge posttraining, indicating the viability of this training format, which is similar to findings from studies of in-person trainings of SBIRT which also found increases in SBIRT knowledge.

Conclusion: Recommendations based on the results are provided to encourage improved student outcomes from this type of e-learning.

KEYWORDS:

• Covid
• e-learning
• online
• pandemic
• SBIRT

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical statement

The University of Missouri – St Louis Institutional Review Board reviewed and approved this study. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

All IRB permissions were obtained, and study participants completed informed consent.

Additional information

Funding

This project was made possible by support from the Substance Use and Mental Health Services Administration, Grant # [1H79T1026013].