Medicine and Pharmacy Students’ Role in Decreasing Substance Use Disorder Stigma: A Qualitative Study

Background: A strong body of research has established stigma as a barrier to care for patients with substance use disorders (SUDs), which can lead to poorer patient outcomes. Prior qualitative research on healthcare practitioners’ perceptions is limited. This study aimed to describe healthcare professional students’ perceived roles in decreasing SUD stigma. Methods: A qualitative design using focus groups (FGs) was employed. This study applied the stigma conceptualization approach by Link and Phelan to develop the FG guide, including labeling, stereotyping, separation, status loss, and discrimination. These components are linked to the construction of cognitive categories that lead to stereotyped beliefs. The FG participants were graduate-level healthcare students recruited via email from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC). The research team analyzed the transcripts using Braun and Clarke’s approach to identify emergent themes in the data. Dedoose ® Version 9.0.107, a qualitative data analysis software platform, was utilized to facilitate data manipulation and retrieval during the analysis. Steps were taken to ensure the reliability of the qualitative data using Lincoln and Guba’s criteria. Results: Among thirty-one pharmacy and medical student participants, three themes emerged from the data: (1) student recognition of stigma, (2) the role of healthcare professionals in harm reduction, and (3) calls to enhance advocacy efforts to improve patient outcomes. These themes collectively encompass key members of the healthcare team’s perceptions and solutions to SUD stigma. Conclusions: This research reveals the importance of expanding training opportunities to go beyond the SUD disease state, to other evidence-based approaches such as effective advocacy, harm reduction, and stigma, which impact the delivery of that care.