This application, entitled “Provider Clinical Support System-PCSS Training focused on MAT preparedness for Nurse Practitioner Students and Field Preceptor Community Health Sites to address Opioid Use Issues: Enhancing a Faith-Based SBIRT Practice Model” seeks to enhance the curriculum and training protocol of nurse practitioner (NP) students and field preceptor (FP) community sites to ensure Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) preparedness by equipping students and sites with the necessary skills to address Opioid Use Issues, including the implementation of evidence-based strategies for identifying patients at risk for opioid use disorders (OUDs) and triaging risk (i.e., use of Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) and MAT protocols). The goal of the training grant is to expand an effective provider clinical support system for addressing OUDs within the field of NPs to address gaps in knowledge and practice that currently exist in the larger systems of care. The efficient and effective implementation of evidence based practices for addressing OUDs in community health care settings by NPs will help reduce the current and significant public health issues that are devastating local communities, including overdose, death, infectious disease transmission, crime, and other medical and mental health consequences. For sustainability, we will build upon a current web-based learning management system (LMS) that houses an effective SAMHSA-supported, faith-integrated SBIRT training currently implemented in nursing curricula and expand it to include a MAT training component that meets the required 24-hours of training under the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA). In addition, this project will train FP community health sites and develop partnerships with local substance use coalitions and providers in Los Angeles County to ensure availability and linkage to the necessary substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and community recovery resources associated with MAT. This project responds to the national priority of implementing effective and sustainable system-wide efforts aimed at preventing and addressing opioid-related issues by health care professionals in local health care settings. Statements made by federal, state and local level government officials, policy makers, researchers and practitioners alike call for establishing efforts that implement collaborative, integrative approaches, and include health care systems, community resources (coalitions), educational systems, and SUD treatment programs.
