Abstract
Objectives
The current opioid addiction crisis highlights two chronic health conditions which
have traditionally received relatively little emphasis in nursing curricula: addiction
and chronic pain. In an effort to provide direction to nursing programs in the US
on the curriculum needed to prepare students to care for patients and meaningfully
intervene in the opioid crisis, this paper presents an overview of the curricular
elements which require integration.
Design and Data Sources
Specifically, the state of current nursing education in pain and addiction are reviewed,
followed by foundational knowledge for nursing practice to address the opioid crisis.
Review/Analysis Methods
Practice competencies for generalist registered nurses as well as advanced practice
nurses will then be detailed, and, recognizing the role nurses play in policy development
and implementation, policy interventions to address the opioid crisis will also be
presented.
Result and Conclusions
Both addiction and chronic pain are sources of suffering for patients; the key role
nursing can play in reducing the experience of these illnesses in these vulnerable
populations is critical to addressing the opioid addiction crisis.
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 26, 2019
Accepted:
June 11,
2019
Received in revised form:
June 11,
2019
Received:
January 30,
2019
Footnotes
This study was funded by The Van Ameringen Foundation and a grant from the NIH, NIDA R21DA046364.
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 American Society for Pain Management Nursing. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
