All-Ohio Medical School Opioid Use Disorder Collaborative Curriculum

With the current status of the opioid crisis, there have been multiple calls for the inclusion of opioid and pain specific instruction in medical school curricula. Experiential learning may be one way for medical schools to accomplish this task. Contact-based education is one method that may decrease opioid-related stigma in medical students. Contact-based education has been used in health professional schools to effectively reduce mental health-related stigma. Contact-based education uses social contact between groups experiencing stigma and audiences who may be stigmatizing toward them. The purpose of this session will be to evaluate the impact of a contact-based educational approach on pre-clinical medical students’ stigma toward opioids and OUD.

Instructional Strategy: Panel, Contact-based approach, 1-1.5 hours

Learning Objectives

1. Identify factors that contribute to stigma associated with opioids and opioid use disorder, including health history, comorbidity, and language. 
2. Develop a health history interview that eliminates stigmatizing language about opioids and opioid use disorder. 

Author: Elizabeth Beverly, PhD

School: Ohio University