Motivational Interviewing Training for Advanced Practice Nursing Students to Address Prescription Opioid Use Disorder: A Mixed Methods Approach

Prescription opioid use disorder in the United States has increased to epidemic proportions and poses a challenging problem to health care providers. Motivational interviewing (MI) is a patient-centered counseling style that can effectively reduce substance abuse, but MI training has not been well incorporated into advanced practice nursing curricula. Standardized patient (SP) simulation is an educational tool that is growing in popularity because of its success in improving nursing skills. Medical students and residents who underwent a formalized MI training with an SP simulation showed positive results. This study aimed to determine whether an MI training with an SP simulation improved NP students' knowledge, confidence, and skills in MI. A one-group pretest-posttest repeated measures design was used. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and repeated measures analysis of variance, and qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. Results indicated that the MI training showed a significant impact on students' confidence in MI and promising impacts on students' MI knowledge and skills. Students valued the training, favoring the SP component, and plan to use MI in future practice. An MI training can be effectively incorporated into an advanced practice nursing program and would better prepare students to address prescription opioid use disorder and effectively encourage behavior change among their patients.