Overdose victims arrive at the emergency department and the nurses aid these incapacitated patients. Angela Clark, a professor of nursing at the University of Cincinnati, knew nurses weren’t trained to respond to these situations.

She decided to develop a training program to teach nurses how to protect opioid victims while leveraging their medical expertise. Clark has conducted numerous studies focused on educational interventions that address the opioid epidemic, and she believes that nurses have a vital prole to play in the effort to tackle this national crisis. Clark believes that nurses have a unique role to play as they have close access to patients. They are the first to see them when they walk in, and last to see them when they are discharged and the caregivers who spend most time with inpatients.

Clark also recently received funding from the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to train nurses, pharmacists, social workers and health professional students how to use an intervention that lets them understand a patient’s willingness to pursue treatment for opioid use disorder.

Through this communication, nurses learn that patients do not wish to pursue treatment due to caretaker responsibilities or other barriers. Nurses can connect them with resources in the community to help support them in the long-term recovery.

At St. Joseph’s Health in New Jersey, nurses, physicians, pharmacists and administrators worked together to launch a program in 2016 that trains providers how to use alternatives to opioid when treating pain.

Nurses are crucial to the success of the program because, they explain to the patients why they are receiving alternative medication for their pain, said Cathlyn Robinson, MSN, RN, CEN, a clinical education specialist in the emergency department at St. Joseph’s Health. The program has successfully decreased opioid use in the emergency department by almost 50%.

Nurses haven’t been provided substance use training beyond alcohol dependency.

In response, the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing launched a new interdisciplinary undergraduate elective in 2018 called “Opioids: From Receptors to Epidemic.” Students in the course learn about the history of the epidemic, the neuroscience of addiction and the larger policy issues such as lack of access to treatment.

Peggy Compton, PhD, RN, FAAN, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing said that these patients are marginalized in the society and also in the academic curriculum, though more people are dying from this chronic illness than diabetes. She hopes that students will become advocates for these patients in the future.