POST-Survey
Interpretation of results
The results above suggest significant positive changes in different aspects of the topic as a result of the presentation, teaching, and answering clarification questions from the participating nurses. For instance, in the post-survey, 100% of respondents acknowledged their improved ability to explain information about community services to vulnerable patients with addictions compared to 50% in the pre-intervention survey. Also, from the participating nurses’ perspective, the project has helped them to be more effective and straightforward when discussing the most prevalent addiction-related issues with their patients. Modern research suggests that insufficient staff training remains the primary contributor to poor SBI and SBIRT implementation (Vendetti et al., 2017). Importantly, prior to attending the presentation and receiving training, only 20% of nurses were confident of their knowledge of SBIRT. After the training, that number quadrupled, which might indicate the presence of some widespread misconceptions about the SBIRT model.
Overall experience with the project
Thanks to the project, I have been able to polish a range of job-related skills, including interprofessional collaboration, leadership, effort coordination, and educating others. Additionally, the need to research the prevalence of different addictions in my community has improved my own knowledge as a nurse. I will definitely use the windshield survey results to continue studying the most effective health promotion methods for smoking cessation and their implementation.
Summary of the outcomes
To sum up, the results of this project suggest that local nurses’ knowledge of the SBIRT model needs to be improved to encourage more patients in Miami to acknowledge the negative impact that smoking has on them. Based on the participating nurses’ subjective experiences, the brief SBIRT training for nurses provides healthcare practitioners with the knowledge needed to offer helpful and practice-oriented advice to adult tobacco users that do not necessarily recognize smoking as a pernicious habit.
Barriers in the project
The participating nurses work at two different healthcare organizations, and it was not practically possible to recruit participants from ten different healthcare centers. Because of that, it cannot be stated that the provided education on SBIRT will benefit nurses in all types of facilities to the same extent. Next, SBIRT is often regarded as a time-consuming practice, which explains some practitioners’ unwillingness to follow it strictly (Del Boca et al., 2017). At the very beginning of the project, some of the participating nurses used to support that opinion, which could make their attitudes to the approach biased.
Implications for future practice
In terms of personal practice, the project has improved my knowledge about smoking and how it affects adults in Miami, Florida, and I will definitely share the results of the windshield survey with my friends and acquaintances having this harmful habit. Regarding professional practice, this project has helped me to develop new research interests, so I am thinking about exploring the topic of the most common misconceptions about SBIRT among nurses and other professionals. Additionally, I have learned a lot about the uses of motivational interviewing in healthcare and will be able to use MI principles when providing different patients, including tobacco smokers, with self-care advice.
References
Del Boca, F. K., McRee, B., Vendetti, J., & Damon, D. (2017). The SBIRT program matrix: A conceptual framework for program implementation and evaluation. Addiction, 112, 12-22.
Vendetti, J., Gmyrek, A., Damon, D., Singh, M., McRee, B., & Del Boca, F. (2017). Screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment (SBIRT): Implementation barriers, facilitators and model migration. Addiction, 112, 23-33.