Enhanced substance use and addiction education for students

Substance use and addiction are key issues facing healthcare providers. British Columbia is still in the middle of a public health emergency due to toxic drug overdoses and has seen a record number of deaths in the last two years. In response to this pressing health issue, UBC Health and the BC Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU) formed a partnership to provide students in health professional programs at UBC with training in substance use and addiction prevention, treatment, and recovery to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to support people who use substances.

We are working to enhance substance use education, training, and research for health professional students at UBC, including developing resources and learning opportunities for students, faculty, and preceptors. We are building curricular capacity on this critical topic through a special interest group, extracurricular workshops for students, lunch and learn webinars for faculty and preceptors, and integration of substance use content into required interprofessional learning sessions.

The partnership is leveraging the expertise of BCCSU and UBC Health’s established relationships with health professional programs at UBC to integrate interprofessional and collaborative health education across health disciplines. Together, we have enhanced substance use and addiction content across health professional programs and facilitated access to resources to ensure programs and faculty can integrate new learning opportunities in this area.

With a commitment until August 2023, this partnership will continue to grow and develop resources and learning opportunities for both students and practicing professionals.

Strategic Objectives

This work advances the following UBC Health strategic objectives:

• Education innovation: Renew classroom-based and develop practice-based curricula, reinforced by scholarship in health education
• Coordinated responses: Coalesce experts and efforts to further collaborative health education and interdisciplinary research in response to pressing health challenges

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