Integrating Substance Use Content in an “Overcrowded” Nursing Curriculum

Abstract

Various factors have compelled nurse educators to address the lack of substance use-related content in nursing curriculum. Initiatives to add this content are often met with resistance because of an already crowded curriculum. This article describes a 4-phase process that guided the integration of this specialty content into a prelicensure nursing curriculum and a master's level advanced practice nursing curriculum. Lessons learned and recommendations from those experiences are provided to guide nurse educators undertaking similar efforts.

Nursing Education in the Midst of the Opioid Crisis

“…This program is currently accessible in an online module, "Addiction Training for Nurses," and available for continuing education credit (http://nursing.pitt.edu/academics/ce/SBIRT.jsp) (Puskar et al, 2014). Nurse educators can employ live lectures, narrated slides, role play, simulation, standardized patients, video clips or any combination of these teaching modalities (Finnell et al, 2018;Oermann, 2018). The education can be interwoven into other courses across the curriculum such as health assessment and health promotion, theory and didactic classes, community/public health, and pharmacology.…”

“…The current state of addiction content in nursing curricula is inconsistent at best, with some programs offering only a mention of substance use in a mental health course. Curricula on substance use-related content are less than optimum, and schools of nursing have been described as not keeping up with the increasing public health concerns related to substance use disorders (Finnell et al, 2018;Knopf-Amelung et al, 2018;Smothers et al, 2018). Some reasons for the lack of inclusion of substance use education may be due to concerns that the curriculum is an already oversaturated; assumptions that substance use is being taught in the psychiatric nursing or other courses; or that faculty do not have proficiency to teach the subject matter (Smothers et al, 2018).…”

The NCSBN 2019 Environmental Scan: 40th Anniversary Edition

“…South Carolina's education focus is supported by recent evidence. Although nurses are on the front lines of the opioid epidemic, surveys indicate little curricular change in the type and amount of alcohol and other drug use content in the last 4 decades (Finnell, et al, 2018). The authors note the emergence of the opioid crisis emphasized the need to better inform nursing students about addiction and offered potential solutions.…”

“…Despite the concern of an already crowded curriculum, a suggested four-phase process to add substance use disorder content into a prelicensure nursing curriculum and a master's level advanced practice nursing curriculum includes developing the knowledge and skills of faculty, planning and development of curriculum modules, implementing the curriculum changes, evaluation and revision. The authors believe these "widespread curricular changes are needed to close the education-practice gap in this area" (Finnell, et al, 2018). www.journalofnursingregulation.com S25 Volume 9/Issue 4 Supplement January 2019 At a Minnesota university, a comprehensive education strategy was implemented and evaluated in two prelicensure nursing programs to improve nursing students' knowledge, skills, and attitudes about substance use disorder (Stewart and Mueller, 2018).…”

Integrating naloxone education into an undergraduate nursing course: Developing partnerships with a local department of health

“…In addition, no research investigating undergraduate nursing student's naloxone knowledge, efficacy, or level of stigma was identified. It is not only the extant literature that fails to examine the nursing role in addressing the opioid epidemic, but nursing curricula have also failed to keep pace with the growing addictions crisis (Finnell et al, ). What nursing students know about overdose prevention efforts such as naloxone, and how comfortable they feel with administering naloxone, is at the heart of understanding how to advance the nurse's role in preventing death from overdose.…”