A Brief Online Training to Address Pharmacists' Willingness to Dispense Buprenorphine
- PMID: 37948129
- DOI: 10.1097/ADM.0000000000001244
A Brief Online Training to Address Pharmacists' Willingness to Dispense Buprenorphine
Abstract
Background: The recent passage of the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment (MAT) Act could increase the number of patients seeking to fill buprenorphine prescriptions at community pharmacies; however, multiple barriers limit community pharmacists' ability and willingness to dispense buprenorphine. We assess whether a brief online buprenorphine training program (Buprenorphine Understanding in the Pharmacy Environment) improves community pharmacists' outcomes, including willingness to dispense buprenorphine.
Methods: A convenience sample of practicing community pharmacists participated in a 30-minute buprenorphine training. The training was codeveloped with pharmacy advisors and presented solutions to common buprenorphine dispensing barriers. Participants completed a pretest and posttest that assessed their buprenorphine knowledge (5 multiple-choice items based on training content), self-efficacy to engage in various buprenorphine-related behaviors (7 items), buprenorphine attitudes (8 items), and willingness to dispense buprenorphine to 4 different types of customers. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and paired-samples t tests were used to evaluate the impact of the training on pharmacist outcomes.
Results: Of 266 individuals who accessed the pretest, 104 responses were included in the analysis (response rate, 39%). Buprenorphine Understanding in the Pharmacy Environment improved pharmacists' mean buprenorphine knowledge scores (pretest, 2.2; posttest, 3.5; P < 0.001), all 7 self-efficacy items (all P < 0.001), mean buprenorphine attitudes (pretest, 3.1; posttest, 3.4; P < 0.001), and willingness to dispense to all four types of buprenorphine customers (all P < 0.01).
Conclusions: A brief buprenorphine training increased pharmacists' willingness to dispense buprenorphine. Although generalizability of the results may be limited by use of a convenience sample, our pharmacist-oriented training showed promising results and may be an important step in increasing availability of buprenorphine in community pharmacies.
Copyright © 2023 American Society of Addiction Medicine.
Conflict of interest statement
The authors report no conflicts of interest.
Similar articles
-
North Carolina community pharmacists' buprenorphine dispensing practices and attitudes.J Am Pharm Assoc (2003). 2022 Sep-Oct;62(5):1606-1614. doi: 10.1016/j.japh.2022.04.019. Epub 2022 Apr 30. J Am Pharm Assoc (2003). 2022. PMID: 35643625
-
Community Pharmacists' Knowledge and Perceptions of Buprenorphine for Patients with Opioid Use Disorder.J Addict Med. 2023 Jul-Aug 01;17(4):e224-e231. doi: 10.1097/ADM.0000000000001135. Epub 2023 Jan 6. J Addict Med. 2023. PMID: 37579094
-
Independent community pharmacists' attitudes and intentions toward dispensing buprenorphine/naloxone for opioid use disorder.J Am Pharm Assoc (2003). 2023 Sep-Oct;63(5):1558-1565.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.japh.2023.06.010. Epub 2023 Jun 16. J Am Pharm Assoc (2003). 2023. PMID: 37331654
-
Pharmacists' attitudes toward dispensing naloxone and medications for opioid use disorder: A scoping review of the literature.Subst Abus. 2019;40(4):476-483. doi: 10.1080/08897077.2019.1616349. Epub 2019 Aug 16. Subst Abus. 2019. PMID: 31418645 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Rural and small metro area naloxone-dispensing pharmacists' attitudes, experiences, and support for a frontline public health pharmacy role to increase naloxone uptake in New York State, 2019.J Subst Abuse Treat. 2021 Oct;129:108372. doi: 10.1016/j.jsat.2021.108372. Epub 2021 Mar 27. J Subst Abuse Treat. 2021. PMID: 34080543 Free PMC article. Review.
References
-
- Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act of 2021, S.445, 117th Congress (Sen. Hassan MW 2021). 2021. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/445 . Accessed May 23, 2023.
-
- Carpenter D, Lambert KV, Harless JC, et al. North Carolina community pharmacists' buprenorphine dispensing practices and attitudes. J Am Pharm Assoc . 2022;62(5):1606–1614.
-
- Ostrach B, Carpenter D, Cote LP. DEA disconnect leads to buprenorphine bottlenecks. J Addict Med . 2021;15(4):272–275.
-
- Ostrach B, Potter R, Wilson CG, et al. Ensuring buprenorphine access in rural community pharmacies to prevent overdoses. J Am Pharm Assoc (2003) . 2022;62(2):588–597.e2.
-
- Trull G, Major E, Harless C, et al. Rural community pharmacist willingness to dispense Suboxone®—a secret shopper investigation in south-central Appalachia. Explor Res Clin Soc Pharm . 2021;4:100082.
MeSH terms
Substances
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources