Place matters, teachers and learners #CCME18
We learn best in places that support our learning and our bio psycho socio spiritual development – from toddlers to elders, reports Jan Klimas from the Canadian Medical Education conference #CCME18.
Starting in Toronto, Justin Hsu and colleagues from University of Toronto described how they improved spaces for communities in teaching ambulatory care, or the so called Medical Education Teaching Clinics (METC). They plan to evaluate METC clinics via audit of referrals to the teaching clinic and the learner satisfaction survey.
Presentation title: Creating unique spaces to support community-based ambulatory care education: the E3 experience.
Presentation authors: Jerry Maniate, Elizabeth Wooster, Douglas Wooster, Justin Hsu
British Columbia quality matters
Jan Klimas’ team from University of British Columbia evaluated hospital as a place of learning about substance use disorders. Who learns most about addictions in hospitals? Using mixed-methods approach, this team showed that medical students get more out of a rotation in hospital than residents or senior learners. Especially in the areas of safe prescribing, screening and withdrawal management. Why is that? Do residents know more or are they more resistant to new learning? For many medical students, hospital could be the first place where they see someone with addiction and that could be why they learn more in this setting.
Presentation title: Who learns most about addiction in the hospitals? A mixed methods study.
Presentation authors: Jan Klimas, Evan Wood, Walter Cullen, Will Small, Seonaid Nolan, Annabel Mead, Mark McLean, Christophe Fairgrieve, Keith Ahamad, Huiru Dong, Breanne Reel, Lauren Gorfinkel, Nadia Fairbairn
Derek Wilson and colleagues from the same university focused on the quality of health education learning environment (HELES study). HELES survey tool looked at relationship, personal development and program culture as the key parts of the learning environment at the faculty of medicine. For example, the evaluation asked whether the learners have developed a strong sense of community.
Presentation title: Evaluating the Quality of Health Professions Learning Environments: Validation of the Health Education Learning Environment Survey (HELES).
Presentation authors: Derek Wilson, Shayna Rusticus, Derek Wilson, Oscar Casiro, Kevin Eva, Lisa Hazlett, Chris Lovato
Calgary explores and experiences
Maureen Topps and collaborators from University of Calgary, Cumming School of Medicine, asked whether in addition to focusing on the deficiencies and gaps in education, whether we could research the successful activities related to professionalism. The postgraduate education is a key stage in training the next generation of competent and professional clinicians. Professionalism is hard to define and to define it may “limit it,” as Dr Barnhoorn writes in the Academic Medicine journal (2006, Vol. 91, No. 9). But how does the place of learning make for more professional doctors? Slowing down and taking time to plan interactions appears to foster professionalism among other factors such as communication training.
Presentation title: Contexts and Experiences of Postgraduate Residents that support successfully meeting professionalism challenges.
Presentation authors: Janet de Groot, Maureen Topps, Aliya Kassam, Maureen Topps
Nicole Delaloye and colleagues from the same university presented results from her Masters research of the MSc/MD program. Clinicians should be both polite and respective, but not overly submissive. Why do we follow orders? Resuscitation requires wise action, not passive deference. What happens when learners hold back too much and how does the place of learning impact submissiveness? Mechanisms that underly submission in the moment of revival include learner’s mental state, what was going on inside and outside the room, team and motivation.
Presentation title: An Exploration of Deference Behaviours Exhibited within the Paediatric Resuscitation Environment and the Educational Implications.
Presentation authors: Nicole Delaloye, Elaine Gilfoyle, Rachel Ellaway, Aliya Kassam, Elizabeth Oddone Paolucci
In summary, the best learning places not only support our learning, but also challenge us to learn knew knowledge, adopt the discipline’s values, overcome deference and become successful professionals in our own right.
The opinions and views in this article present the views of the author and not the named persons or the #CCME18 conference organisers.
Hospital teaching teams confront iatrogenic opioid addiction
What can hospital teams teach medical students about addiction to help curb the opioid overdose epidemic?
In a new article published by the Substance Abuse journal, we report findings suggesting that the completion of an elective with a hospital-based Addiction Medicine Consult Team appeared to improve medical trainees’ knowledge which can help routinely establish clinical training teams elsewhere.
We found that both emerging and established physicians appear to be responsive to this type of training. The learner self-assessment can provide valuable feedback to the consultants, who can then focus more on the un-improved areas.
The study sample was drawn from medical students, residents and physicians who took part in a month-long rotation with a hospital-based addiction medicine consult team in Vancouver, Canada. Each year, approximately 60 learners go through the programme. Learners are asked to do a before and after self-assessment of their knowledge on addiction. The addiction rotation consisted of 4-12 weeks of full-time clinical training involving intake assessment, treatment planning, referrals to community agencies and starting people on evidence-based medications for substance use disorders. The learners take part in didactic lectures, bedside teaching, journal clubs and some prepare papers for submission to peer-reviewed journals.
At the end of the learners reported increased knowledge in all but one of the areas of teaching focus, including opioid use disorders; this increase was statistically significant. These preliminary, first-year results suggest that a structured clinical training program could lead to an increased knowledge on addiction.
For more info read the full article “Impact of a Brief Addiction Medicine Training Experience on Knowledge Self-assessment among Medical Learners” at: to: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08897077.2017.1296055
Alcohol holding up methadone treatment
This review asked whether excessive drinking can get in the way of treating heroin addiction.
No current evidence supports the clinical requirement asking people to stop their medicines for opioid addiction if they want to enter alcohol treatment.
Although there is a lot of research behind effective strategies for the screening, diagnosis and management of an alcohol or opioid use disorder individually, less is known about how best to care for those who also use other drugs, especially since the usual treatments for opioid addiction may not be allowed in a setting of alcohol use treatment.
For example, some fellowship meetings discourage people from continuing their medication for opioid addiction (methadone). Or some residential treatment centres require people to be “drug free” upon enrolment, which includes not using their suboxone. For safety reasons, methadone clinics reduce the dose for patients who drink excessively.
This review summarizes existing research and characterizes the prevalence, clinical implications and management options for heavy drinking among people who also use other illicit drugs.
Drinking by people using agonist medications like methadone or suboxone for opioid use disorders is common and brings along many unwanted side effects. Over time, people die.
We don’t know how to treat people who have alcohol use disorder and who also use other drugs but asking them to come off their prescribed medications isn’t based on evidence.
Nolan, S., Klimas, J., & Wood, E. (2016). Alcohol use in opioid agonist treatment. Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, 11, 17. http://doi.org/10.1186/s13722-016-0065-6 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5146864/
Primary care looks at drinking among persons on methadone treatment
How should primary care doctors ask their methadone patients about alcohol use?
We worked with 13 primary care doctors and divided them into two groups. We trained one group on how to ask about and advise on heavy drinking. We looked at whether trained and coached doctors managed patients who drank.
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| photocredit: methadoneaddiction.com |
Primary care can look at drinking among persons on methadone treatment and advise on risks of heavy drinking.
We found that the trained doctors asked about and advised on heavy drinking more often than the untrained doctors. Four patients in their care drank less alcohol three months later, compared to two patients of the untrained doctors. Some doctors were reluctant to use their new learning in the practice because it was too complicated.
A bigger and simpler study must prove the positive results of this modest study
Methadone helps people with opioid use disorders use less drugs, but it doesn’t stop them from drinking. About 30% of them drink in excess of the low-risk drinking limits. Drinking makes their treatment harder and their health worse. Primary care doctors who prescribe methadone see patients weekly and can help them drink less.
Reference: Henihan, AM., McCombe, G., Klimas, J., Swan, D., Leahy, D….Cullen, W. (2016) Feasibility of Alcohol Screening among Patients receiving Opioid Agonist Treatment in Primary Care. BMC Family Practice, 17:153
What do persons on methadone in primary care think about alcohol screening?
Enhancing alcohol screening and brief intervention among people receiving opioid agonist treatment: Qualitative study in primary care
New Paper Out Now
Although very common, excessive drinking by people who also use other drugs is rarely studied by scientists. The purpose of this study was to find out patient’s and clinicians’ opinions about addressing this issue. All of them took part in a study called PINTA – Psychosocial interventions for problem alcohol use among problem drug users.
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| photocredit: emerald |
Doctors reported obstacles to addressing heavy drinking and overlooking and underestimating this problem in this population.
Patients revealed that their drinking was rarely spoken about and feared that their methadone would be withheld.
Read the full article in the latest issue of the Drugs and Alcohol Today: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/loi/dat
See also my previous posts about the PINTA study:
New paper out now: Psychosocial Interventions for Alcohol use among problem drug users
2014
Beg, steel or borrow: getting physicians to recruit patients in clinical trials
Addiction Medicine Education for Healthcare Improvement Initiatives: New Paper out Now
2013