Friday, November 22, 2024
11/22/2024
The opioid crisis continues to rage in the United States and is particularly evident in North Carolina. This opioid crisis was made worse by the addition of the COVID-19 pandemic, as evidenced by the increase in opioid overdose deaths over the past year since the beginning of the pandemic. Opioid use disorder is a chronic medical/psychiatric condition that can be effectively treated with cognitive, behavioral, and medication-assisted modalities. However, there are not enough providers of addiction prevention and treatment in the state of North Carolina or across the United States. Rural areas and other locations with disparate populations have an even greater challenge toward receiving prevention and treatment services as there are even fewer providers of these services in those areas than urban and affluent areas. Nurse practitioners can provide addiction treatment services, including medication-assisted treatment, specifically buprenorphine for opioid use disorder. However, there are barriers that prevent nurse practitioners from treating opioid use disorder. First, nurse practitioners must complete 24 hours of specific training in order to obtain a waiver to prescribe buprenorphine. Second, the stigma associated with opioid use disorder may be a barrier toward treating this chronic illness. The overarching goal of this project is to increase the number of nurse practitioners who prescribe buprenorphine to patients with opioid use disorder. We propose to provide the required training to nurse practitioner students as a part of their clinician training. We also propose to frame opioid use disorder as a chronic remitting and relapsing disorder like many other chronic illnesses treated by nurse practitioners. Treating opioid use disorder as a chronic illness will help to decrease the stigma associated with the illness. Using training modules available through the Provider’s Clinical Support System (PCSS), we propose to embed the required 24-hour training into both the family nurse practitioner and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner curriculum. Further, we propose to institute a 24-hour residency in which interested students will participate in treatment simulations and shadowing experiences with providers who treat opioid use disorder with buprenorphine and cognitive/behavioral therapies. Upon graduation, nurse practitioner students will have completed the required training and will be eligible to apply for the medication-assisted treatment waiver once they meet the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) requirements for obtaining a DEA license. We have obtained permission to use the training modules from PCSS.
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).
