Substance Use Disorder Education for Medical Students: Reflections on Our Betty Ford Institute Training Experience

Abstract

This article shares the personal reflections of four 3rd-year medical students and two faculty members from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center who participated in the Summer Institute for Medical Students (SIMS) program provided by the Betty Ford Institute. The SIMS program is a one-week experiential program of participating in treatment activities with patients and their family members at the Betty Ford Center as well as educational instruction on addiction as a treatable disease. We would like to share how the SIMS experience affected us as professionals and individuals and how we will incorporate this experience in our future efforts as health care providers and educators.

KEYWORDS:

• Substance use disorder treatment training
• medical student education
• Betty Ford Institute