Through the RN Practice in Primary Care and Substance Abuse Disorder course I have learned both that I was more knowledgeable on the subject than I thought, but also realize there is a lot more to learn on the subject. I have learned a lot from the class. I have also learned something about myself through the class, I am more passionate about the subject than I realized before taking it.
The most interesting part of the class for me was the module that explained how substance abuse “tricks” your brain. The video “Addiction Neuroscience 101” was amazing. It really explains the effects of substance abuse and the daily struggle of patients to fight the urges of relapsing. I’ve shared this with some of my co-workers and I think as our practice keeps moving forward and expanding our behavioral health/MAT programs this video will be used for staff education.
I think the topic that sometimes gets uncomfortable is debating the expansion or limitation of Narcan. I feel comfortable sharing my view on it but sometimes it gets uncomfortable debating with others. A lot of times people have such “black and white” views on the subject that they do not take any other opinions in consideration. Luckily our class contains professional health care professionals, and everyone was very respectful of varied opinions.
Module 6 also really got me thinking, realizing the skill set of our nurses can limit or expand our provider services. I would like to share what I have learned with my teammates at work. I would like to empower the nurses that have an interest in this subject to learn more and in turn both them and the providers they work with will be more confident treating patients with substance abuse. I also plan to stress the strong linkage between mental health conditions and substance abuse. Our practice does utilize the PHQ9, Audit-C and DAST 10 currently but not consistent enough. In the future I feel every patient that is part of our MAT program should also routinely follow our counselors and based on their screening results also follow up with a Behavioral Health provider as indicated.
I’ve enjoyed this class.