Assessing the impact of a substance abuse educational program on pharmacy students' knowledge base: A controlled study

Substance abuse among healthcare practitioners, including pharmacists and p harmacy students, is a significant problem. In response to a perceived stud ent need, a didactic and experiential educational program was developed to provide information and skills for participants to use when providing pharm aceutical care for persons with substance abuse disorders. Our purpose was to evaluate the impact of that educational program on the knowledge base of pharmacy students. A controlled, nonrandomized study design was used. Stud ents completed a pre- and post-intervention questionnaire to assess knowled ge of substance abuse. Participating students' responses were compared with a control group of students who did not volunteer to participate in the pr ogram. Twenty-one participants were compared with 30 controls. In compariso n to the control group, participants' knowledge regarding alcohol abuse was significantly increased after the program. Results demonstrated that parti cipants' self-rated scores significantly increased from baseline for overal l knowledge of substance abuse, ability to handle a substance abuse situati on, and comfort level of handling persons with substance abuse problems. An implication of our results may be that improving a person's comfort level and ability to handle a substance abuse situation may be influenced by real life experiences.