Substance Use Disorder: Efficacy of Educational Strategies in Delaware.

BACKGROUND: Substance use disorder (SUD) is a national epidemic. The problem is underreported and gaps exist in nurses' knowledge pertaining to recognizing and reporting nurses with an SUD. The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of an educational intervention on SUD to meet the continuing education (CE) requirement for relicensure.

METHOD: A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was used to determine whether an increase in scores occurred following completion of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing Learning Extension's online course, titled Understanding Substance Use Disorder in Nursing. Eighty-six nurses started the online course.

RESULTS: Sixty-eight of the 86 nurses completed the online course. An increase of 22% (p < .001) was observed when pre- and posttest scores were compared, suggesting an increase in nurses' knowledge about SUD.

CONCLUSION: Online CE courses are an effective means to increase SUD knowledge for nurses. J Contin Nurs Educ. 2018;49(1):42-48.