Friday, April 19, 2024
4/19/2024
Opioid overdose deaths continue to rise, yet efficacious medications to treat opioid use disorder, such as methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone, remain vastly underutilized. In particular, few providers eligible to prescribe buprenorphine obtain a waiver to do so; of those who do, many do not go on to prescribe or neglect to prescribe to patient capacity. Nurse practitioners stand poised to serve as frontline buprenorphine providers in the opioid epidemic, and address the medication-assisted treatment (MAT) provider shortage. To this end, we propose the Arizona State University (ASU) Waiver Expansion, or AWE, program. AWE program leadership propose to train 75 Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) students per year, for a total of 225 new ASU DNP nursing graduates across three years who will be well positioned to secure the buprenorphine waiver post-graduation. Additional program goals and objectives include: 1) building internal faculty capacity for ongoing buprenorphine waiver student instruction, training a minimum of six nursing faculty to become buprenorphine waiver instructors; 2) establishing formal relationships with a minimum of 10 community-based practica and internship sites which deliver opioid use disorder treatment to provide experiential student learning opportunities, placing 10-20 students per year at these sites; 3) providing ongoing technical assistance and implementation support to new MAT practitioners at the pre-service and post-graduate levels using proven workforce development models (e.g., Project ECHO) by recruiting a minimum of 30 students and graduates to the MAT ECHO program; and 4) measuring program success through systematic longitudinal tracking of prescribing practices and waiver attainment by nurse practitioner students post-graduation. The success of this program will increase workforce readiness among nurse practitioners and expand treatment access to residents in Arizona.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
