Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT): Moving From Passive Spread to Widespread Adoption

Utilization of Nurse-Administered Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment in a Brief Psychiatric Inpatient Unit

BACKGROUND

Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) has been established as an effective screening tool for providing interventions for patients with risky substance use.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this project were to train and coach staff nurses in the use of SBIRT, offer SBIRT to all admissions of a brief psychiatric inpatient unit, and decrease readmission rates.

DESIGN

Using the Iowa Model for Implementing Evidence-Based Practices, SBIRT was implemented on the unit. Data were collected on the frequency of patients offered SBIRT and readmission rates.

RESULTS

Fifty-nine percent of all admissions were offered SBIRT. The average readmission rates decreased by 18.3% for the first 2 months of implementation and by 67.5% for Days 16-31 postdischarge.

CONCLUSIONS

SBIRT is an effective tool for nurses on psychiatric units to address substance use and to decrease readmission rates.

A comparative review of guides for implementing alcohol screening and brief interventions into trauma and primary care settings

The likelihood that a patient is currently using alcohol is high across all health care settings with almost one in four persons in the United States aged 12 years or over reporting excessive drinking on at least one occasion in the past 30 days. Screening and brief intervention (SBI) is an evidence-based approach to help decrease alcohol-related harm among persons seeking health care. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Committee on Trauma, American College of Surgeons, have provided guidelines for implementation of an SBI program within a health care organization. This column provides a comparative overview of three of these guides. These guides provide practical information to help nurses and other health care providers with the planning and implementation of alcohol SBI into routine practice.