178 A Comparative Analysis of Online vs In-Person Opioid Overdose Prevention Training for First Year Medical Students as an Adjunct to First Responder Training Using Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

Abstract

To help address the growing opioid overdose epidemic and help teach a core toxicological emergency, the authors taught the use of naloxone as an antidote to an opioid overdose, for all first-year medical students as a part of first responder training using cardiopulmonary resuscitation, as an online and in-person training over three years. Previously we demonstrated that in-person opioid overdose prevention training as an adjunct to BLST improves knowledge and preparedness. To compare the educational outcomes; knowledge, preparedness, and attitudes, for online vs in-person opioid overdose prevention training. Opioid overdose prevention trainings were conducted in person in 2014 and 2015, and online in 2016. First year students completed pre- and post-training surveys covering three measures: knowledge (11-point scale), attitudes (66-point scale) towards patients with opioid use disorders, and self-reported preparedness (60-point scale) to respond to an opioid overdose. Online and in-person scores across all three measures were compared using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) methods across two years of trainings. After controlling for pre-test scores, there were very small and not meaningful differences in attitude and knowledge scores between in-person training and online training. The estimated difference for knowledge was -0.06 (95% CI -0.48 - 0.35) and for attitudes was 0.64 (95% CI -0.22 - 1.50). The average scores related to preparedness were higher for the students who took the course online, estimated at 2.10 points (95% CI 0.97 - 3.22). Feedback was generally positive, with 96% of the in-person group saying future classes should receive the training and 95% of the online group saying all medical schools should provide the training. Online training has become a more common method of medical education due to its many advantages including standardization, scalability and flexibility to accommodate asynchronous learning. However, few studies have performed analyses of online training vs in-person training for relative effectiveness. The authors have demonstrated that for training medical students to administer naloxone as an antidote to an opioid overdose, online training is comparable to in-person training. These results support the use of online training for adding training on administering naloxone.