Imperatives and Implications for Nurses O ver the past 2 decades, drug overdose deaths have drastically increased (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2017c). Illicit substance use is not restricted to urban or metropolitan areas. In fact, rural communities across America are affected. Although prevalence of illicit substance use is greater in urban areas, overdose death rates in rural areas has exceeded urban rates for the past 10 years (CDC, 2018). In addition to overdose deaths, incidence of Hepatitis C infection among individuals who inject drugs rose 294% over the years 2010-2015 (CDC, 2017b). Further, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (2017) reports that addiction and abuse of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit substances costs more than $740 billion per year in lost productivity, crime, and health care expenses. Facing a mounting public health crisis, thoughtful evidencebased interventions must be employed.
This article describes 2 innovative models of advanced practice provider-led medication for opioid use disorder treatment programs offering comprehensive, interprofessional care for pregnant patients and provides implications for broader adaptation of practice. Increasing the number of midwives and nurse practitioners waivered to prescribe buprenorphine and able to connect pregnant patients with opioid use disorder to appropriate community-based resources, treatment, and self-help programs could address alarming substance use trends including overdose deaths and other sequelae associated with the opioid epidemic.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.