“It’s legal, now what?” development, implementation, and evaluation of interdisciplinary cannabis education for healthcare trainees

Background: Healthcare professionals are motivated to improve their cannabis knowledge—yet few training opportunities exist. The unique legal status of cannabis, lack of rigorous research, and rapid expansion of consumer demand present challenges to the development and implementation of cannabis education for healthcare professionals and trainees. As a result, an alarming gap in quality of care is developing: health care professionals across disciplines lack the knowledge needed to counsel their patients, even as cannabis use rapidly accelerates. Methods: We aimed to address the gap by developing and implementing an interprofessional cannabis training for healthcare trainees. Considering the challenges to development and implementation of cannabis training, we identified 4 implementation strategies to maximize training quality, uptake, and utility: 1) incorporating a diverse array of scientific expertise and perspectives in curriculum development; 2) offering a comprehensive, evidence-based treatment of potential risks and potential benefits; 3) using an interprofessional training format; 4) adopting a person-centered lens with special emphasis on patient-provider communication. A post-survey evaluated implementation success and intermediate outcomes in trainee attitudes and behavioral intentions that would suggest high potential to deliver healthcare improvements at scale. Results: The virtual training “It's Legal, Now What? Cannabis Epidemiology, Treatment, and Safety Recommendations” was successfully implemented; since 2023 a total of 345 trainees in Pharmacy, Nursing, Public Health, and Medicine have earned certificates. Evaluation results are encouraging: 90% agree the training addressed a training need in their current role, 83% agree it should be required for trainees in their profession, 98% and 96% agree it comprehensively addressed potential risks and benefits, respectively, 94% agree it was inclusive of diverse perspectives, 94% agree it improved their knowledge of community resources, 96% report improved ability to respond to patients interested in cannabis, 96% report greater likelihood of providing information on cannabis to others, and 97% of trainees agree they learned information that would help them in their work or community. Conclusions: We present our training development process, implementation strategy, and evaluation as an adaptable model for contexts where both recreational and medical use of cannabis are legal.