Abstract
Pain management has become a challenging field both for the patients, their families, and providers. The rise of the opioid crisis has made the availability of opioids limited, even for those patients who truly need the life changing medications. Nurses, physicians, and administrators play a vital role in patient education and the education regarding the importance of using opioids safely. Lack of patient education regarding the use, misuse, and side effects of opioids can lead to potential injuries, overdose, and even death.
Providing patients with an educational program would greatly decrease their risk of misuse and abuse of opioids. During the educational program, information regarding the potentially dangerous medications they are prescribed would be discussed as well as information regarding how to identify overdose signs, symptoms, and what to do in case of overdose. Furthermore, patients would have the opportunity to ask questions they would have otherwise not asked in the clinical setting. This would result in higher compliance, safer consumption, and increase in knowledge regarding the opioid medications which would mitigate the patient's risk, decrease the nurses risk, and the risk to the organization. Effectiveness would be determined by written pre and post-tests provided to patients during the program. Additionally, this data would be collected and weighed against cost, time spent on the project, and patient knowledge to determine if sustainability is appropriate.
Date of publication
Spring 12-6-2020
Document Type
MSN Capstone Project
Language
english
Persistent identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/10950/2756
Degree
Masters of Science in Nursing Administration
Recommended Citation
De Atley, Cynthia, "Opioid Education Program" (2020). MSN Capstone Projects. Paper 60.
http://hdl.handle.net/10950/2756