Establishing Consensus‐based Objectives for the Creation of an Opioid Overdose Curriculum for Emergency Medical Services Clinicians

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Links to Files

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8019192/

Permanent Link

https://doi.org/10.1002%2Faet2.10499
 http://hdl.handle.net/11603/24809

Collections

UMBC Emergency and Distaster Health Systems
UMBC Faculty Collection

Author/Creator

Author/Creator ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8144-3281

Date

2020-07-26

Type of Work

journal articles
Text

Department

Program

Citation of Original Publication

Trebach JD, Levy M, Ali F, et al. Establishing Consensus-based Objectives for the Creation of an Opioid Overdose Curriculum for Emergency Medical Services Clinicians. AEM Educ Train. 2020;5(2):e10499. Published 2020 Jul 26. doi:10.1002/aet2.10499

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This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.

Subjects

Emergency medical services (EMS)
opioid toxicity curriculum
educational objectives

Abstract

Objectives Emergency medical services (EMS) clinicians are on the front lines of the opioid epidemic and are often the first health care personnel system to contact patients experiencing opioid toxicity. Although national educational guidelines include opioid toxicity, no specific standardized prehospital educational objectives or competencies exist. The goal of this project was to identify objectives for an EMS opioid toxicity curriculum that could be used for EMS training. Methods A list of preliminary educational objectives from U.S. EMS training programs was compiled and reviewed by a group of experts. The Delphi method was used to attain consensus on a final list of objectives for an EMS opioid curriculum. Results A total of 107 opioid‐related preliminary objectives were identified and then narrowed down to 81 preliminary objectives after accounting for redundancy. After four successive rounds of evaluating/accepting/rejecting objectives, 18 final objectives were identified and unanimously approved by the expert panel. Conclusion We identified 18 objectives to serve as a framework for an opioid toxicity curriculum for EMS clinicians. These objectives can serve as a basis for creating a standardized didactic training program for EMS training programs nationwide. Further evaluation will be needed to explore the best means for educational program delivery.