Can Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment Education and Clinical Exposure Affect Nursing Students' Stigma Perception Toward Alcohol and Opioid Use?

BACKGROUND: Alcohol and/or opioid stigma perceptions are barriers to screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) implementation.

AIM: To examine SBIRT education and clinical exposure efficacy at decreasing nursing students' stigma perceptions toward caring for patients affected by alcohol and/or opioid use problems.

METHOD: A single-sample, pretest-posttest design with N = 124 nursing students. The students had a 1.5-hour SBIRT education session and a 12-week clinical experience with some patients who had alcohol and/or opioid use problems.

RESULTS: The participants' stigma perceptions improved toward patients who had alcohol and/or opioid use problems.

CONCLUSIONS: SBIRT education and clinical exposure may provide a basis for promoting understanding of alcohol and/or opioid use-related stigma and can be used as an intervention to decrease some of stigma's negative effects.