THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUBSTANCE-ABUSE CURRICULAR CONTENT BY 5 NORTH-CAROLINA SCHOOLS

In 1992, the four medical schools in North Carolina and that state's d ental school initiated a four-year project to more thoroughly integrat e content about substance abuse into their curricula. The project was based on the premise that medical schools are failing to provide their students with adequate training about substance abuse issues, yet sub stance abuse is a large and growing source of health problems nationwi de. While the authors indicate in broad ways the kinds of curricular c ontent that the project sought, in this article they concentrate on th e processes by which key faculty, administrators, and staff members fr om all the schools worked together in the curriculum development proce ss, with each school tailoring the project's findings to the needs of its own students. Phase I of the project focused on the selection and orientation of the key faculty and members of the working committee at each institution, and garnering institutional support. Phase II focus ed on the development by key faculty of the project's philosophy goals , and objectives; conducting needs assessment and curriculum analysis at each school; and identifying the content needed. During Phase III, project participants refined the needed content and integrated it, in individual ways, into each school's curriculum. Some (but not enough) evaluation of these curricular implementations was done. The authors h ighlight the lessons learned, both positive and negative, in hopes tha t these will be useful to other educators who wish to design, implemen t, and institutionalize substance-abuse curricular content.