Can Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment Education and Clinical Exposure Affect Nursing Students' Stigma Perception Toward Alcohol and Opioid Use?

Alcohol and/or opioid stigma perceptions are barriers to screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) implementation. To examine SBIRT education and clinical exposure efficacy at decreasing nursing students' stigma perceptions toward caring for patients affected by alcohol and/or opioid use problems. A single-sample, pretest-posttest design with = 124 nursing students. The students had a 1.5-hour SBIRT education session and a 12-week clinical experience with some patients who had alcohol and/or opioid use problems. The participants' stigma perceptions improved toward patients who had alcohol and/or opioid use problems. SBIRT education and clinical exposure may provide a basis for promoting understanding of alcohol and/or opioid use-related stigma and can be used as an intervention to decrease some of stigma's negative effects.