Substance Use Screening and Referral Toolkit

Abstract

Problem: More than nine percent of the United States population is addicted to drugs and alcohol. Despite the growing health concern of alcohol and substance use, many providers do not feel trained to identify and assist patients with substance use disorders. The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project was to develop a toolkit for primary care practitioners that included screening tools, a list of local treatment centers, and information about the referral processes. The goal was to increase the knowledge of primary care providers by 5%. Methodology: The FADE Model provided the framework of planning, implementation, and evaluation of this DNP project. The implementation included a presentation at the project sites about the substance use and alcohol screening tools and information about local treatment centers and referral processes. Data from a pre-presentation and post-presentation survey were compared to identify a change in personal perception of knowledge and comfort levels, intent to use the toolkit, and appropriateness of the toolkit in primary care settings. Results: Eight of 9 participants reported an increase in knowledge of substance abuse screening and referrals. Six of 9 participants “very comfortable” assessing patient for substance use. Nine of 9 participants intended to use the toolkit. Nine of 9 participants “strongly agree” the toolkit was suitable for primary care. Conclusion: A limitation of this project is a small sample size of nine participants. However, this project did meet the expectation of increasing provider knowledge of substance use screening and the referral to specialized treatment.