The New York University School of Medicine (NYU SoM) and its collaborating partners propose to evolve and disseminate the impact of a substance use disorder (SUD) research training program for physicians, nurses, dentists and social workers. The purpose of this program, currently entering its tenth year, is to stimulate participants' interest in pursuing careers in SUD research. Using an interactive web-based educational design, we have developed a flexible and content-rich Substance Abuse Research Education and Training (SARET) program to educate medical, nursing dental and social work students about addiction and the fundamentals of clinical research. A subset of learners, often motivated by exposure to this curriculum, participate in a summer-long intensive SUD research experience with a seasoned mentor, aimed at stimulating enduring interest in this field. The SARET program is an interprofessional collaboration between the NYU School of Medicine, NYU College of Nursing, NYU College of Dentistry and NYU Silver School of Social Work. Our collaboration has built successfully on our extensive experience in developing and evaluating innovative approaches to health professional education, and in addiction research and training. Working closely with our research, education and clinical partners, we have developed, implemented and evaluated the innovative and engaging SARET educational platform, integrated it into our participating schools' curricula (reaching nearly 7,000 students) and created rich individual mentored research experiences for over 90 participants. Our evaluation data suggest substantive positive impact on attitudes towards SUD research, and significant influence on subsequent research engagement. By continually refreshing the content of the curriculum, and facilitating its adoption at other health professional schools, we have disseminated SARET to learners around the country. We are now poised to enter the third ?phase? of the SARET initiative which has four specific aims.
Aim 1 is to optimize integration of the digital curriculum and mentored research into the education of NYU health professions students, continuously adapting content to integrate feedback and new developments in the field.
Aim 2 is to expand the interprofessional target audience of SARET to include the discipline of public health, fostered through partnership with NYU's College of Global Public Health.
Aim 3 is to disseminate the SARET curriculum and research career focus to other health professional schools, broadening its reach and impact, by fostering the development of research mentors and propagating programs of mentored research at other schools.
Aim 4 is to evaluate the impact these aims on our primary outcome of attracting health professional students to careers that include substance use research. By exposing learners to fascinating and challenging unanswered questions in the field of addiction, and linking exposure to opportunities to participate in research with seasoned mentors, we aim to increase the number of health professional trainees who follow career paths that advance clinically-oriented SUD research.
Despite the great toll substance abuse takes on society, the pace of discovery of new and effective prevention and treatment strategies is only modest, and major delays exist in translating such knowledge into improved population health. There is an urgent need to increase the number of health care professionals conducting clinically applicable research in substance abuse prevention and treatment. The goal of this grant, therefore, is to expand, and increase the national impact of, a substance abuse research training program targeting students in the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, social work and public health.
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