Nursing Roles in Outpatient Substance Use Disorder Treatment: Be Optimistic - Recovery is Possible

Purpose: Nurses in primary care have an emerging and leading role in caring for patients with substance use disorder (SUD). 10% of US adults have a SUD some time in their lifetime and 75% report NOT receiving any form of treatment. Lack of access and delayed access are cited as the first barriers to providing care for SUD. Nurses are key clinicians to identify and treat SUD in an office-based addiction treatment (OBAT) model. Nurses also play an important role in identification of social determinants of health factors that can participate in SUD. OBAT programs improve SUD outcomes such as improving access to first-step treatment such as buprenorphine, providing education and support that reduce overdose deaths, improving engagement in peer-support programs, and increasing patient and family’s knowledge of coping and harm-reduction. Nursing skills and competencies directed at SUD care are needed to expand the capacity of primary care settings to delivery this essential care.

Description: As the nurse's roles in SUD treatment are expanding and becoming more defined, this session will present current evidence on the pathology of addiction, current treatment modalities, team-based models of care for SUD and team preparation, as well as the specific nurses’ role. OBAT programs in ambulatory care require nurses to organize the interprofessional team to identify key screening points, develop approved policies and procedures describing all roles of the team, develop protocols to guide care and treatment, and develop necessary community partners to support patients and families.

Evaluation: This evidence-based presentation will guide and support our ambulatory care nursing workforce in the steps, competencies, and roles of nurses in SUD OBAT programs. Upon completion of the presentation, the audience will be able to identify incidence/prevalence of SUD, describe the nurse’s role in SUD OBAT programs, identify key steps of OBAT programs (i.e*.,: screening, consenting, induction and stabilization, billing), and identify and evaluate key nurse sensitive indicators (NSI) and overall outcomes an SUD protocol in an OBAT program.