A systematic approach for enhancing fidelity in opioid overdose prevention interventions

25^th World Congress on Nursing Care

July 24-26, 2017 Melbourne, Australia

Angela Clark

University of Cincinnati, USA

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Adv Practice Nurs

Abstract :

Introduction & Aim: The evaluation of treatment fidelity is an important methodological consideration in intervention research. Treatment fidelity is the degree to which interventions are delivered as outlined by the program developers. A lack of fidelity to the intervention model has the potential to be a large source of error, including type-I and type-II error. Monitoring and assuring fidelity is critical to assuring the validity of the interventions. The Fidelity Checklist, as created by Breitenstein is used to assess group leaders� maintenance of the intervention protocol (adherence) and their group facilitation and process skills (competence). The purpose of this presentation is to describe a systematic process of modifying the Fidelity Checklist for use in opioid overdose prevention interventions. Methods: A biphasic approach was used to modify the Fidelity Checklist for three different overdose prevention programs. Phase-1 includes engaging key stakeholders to determine adherence subscale components. Phase-2 included the modification of the competence subscale of the Fidelity Checklist, adaptation of the coding manual defining the components of the Fidelity Checklist, and creating a Fidelity Checklist to guide interventionists. Results: The biphasic systematic modification approach resulted in a revised Fidelity Checklist that increases the validity of interventions and strengthens the impact of opioid overdose prevention efforts. Conclusions: Fidelity measurement is an important methodological step that promotes sound research interventions. This presentation will assist researchers to better understand fidelity and a step by step process for adapting a reliable and valid tool to measure fidelity.

Biography :

Angela Clark has 12 years of clinical and public health nursing experience. Her research has highlighted the need for widespread prevention efforts regarding the opioid overdose epidemic in the United States. She has developed e-learning tools that are novel in combatting the epidemic. Her work includes how to respond to opioid overdose, including the use of Naloxone and how to identify and prevent opioid overdoses. She has also created an inter-professional educational i-book that highlighted Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid-use disorders. She was recently recognized for her work by the University of Cincinnati receiving the e-learning Champion Award.

Email: clark3ak@ucmail.uc.edu