MAT Training, PCSS Webinars Offer Curriculum for Students, CME for Faculty
PA programs around the country are facing the same question: what can we do to keep students who are pulled from clinical education experiences occupied and their clinical skills and knowledge current? At the same time, PA faculty are challenged to find accessible, affordable CME when conferences are being cancelled, travel prohibited, and faculty development budgets cut. The PAEA MAT Initiative can be a solution to both of these problems: a no-cost source of content for both didactic and clinical students that will improve their understanding and management of substance use disorders, pain, and mental illness — and provide 24 hours of CME for everyone who takes it.
By completing the 24 hours of MAT Waiver Training, PA students can apply for the DEA X-waiver upon graduation to prescribe buprenorphine for the treatment of opioid use disorder in office-based settings as soon as they enter practice.
Providers Clinical Support System Webinars
Another rich source of both CME and curricular resources on opioid use disorder, substance use disorder, and chronic pain is a series of webinars offered by the Providers Clinical Support System (PCSS). The PCSS also offers no-cost, archived webinars focused on the evaluation and treatment of pain, substance use disorders and their complications, and mental illness. You can find more information and a listing of archived and scheduled webinars on the PCSS Education & Training page.
Recent PCSS offerings are listed below. The slides and recordings are available to all. All are eligible for CME.
Taking Care of the Compassionate Care Team: Conversations about Moral Distress and Moral Injury
Moral distress, knowing the right thing to do but not being able to do it, contributes to burnout, now estimated to affect between one-third to one-half of physicians and nurses in the U.S. It is essential that all team members understand the clinical situations that may trigger moral distress, are able to initiate conversations about it, and are prepared to step in and offer support.
The Functional Pain Scale: Changing the Conversation About Pain
This webinar will discuss the rationale for moving away from establishing and evaluating a pain treatment based on a numeric rating scale value to one that takes into account pain tolerability and the impact its treatment has on functioning. Validation of the Functional Pain Scale, its acceptability to patients and professionals, and next steps to change the conversation about pain will be explored.
The Opioid Epidemic and Complications of Injection Drug Use
This presentation will specifically focus on HIV and other medical conditions that result from IV drug use. Specific attention will be paid to the treatment of HIV in this population and prevention strategies including PrEP as a prevention strategy for contracting HIV.
Navigating the Challenges in an Era of Opioid Deprescribing: Behavioral Strategies for Patient Engagement and Success
The faculty will provide strategies to identify which patients could benefit from potential opioid deprescribing and stratify them into 3 groups: patients who are engaged and open to tapering, patients who are resistant to tapering, and patients with opioid use disorder who may also require medication-assisted therapy.
