Health Care Policy Discussion 6.2

Current Events Blog

Amy Lee

 Current Events Article:

Injury Prevention is More Than Seat Belts, Helmets and Gun Safety

             The article for this blog is titled; "Injury Prevention is More Than Seat Belts, Helmets and Gun Safety". This current event article was taken out of the June/July 2016 issue of the ENA Connection journal. This blog will discuss the summary, rationale and personal reaction to this article. This is an important current event topic as there is an increase in the amount of individuals with opioid addiction.

Rationale

            This article was selected because opioid addiction, intentional overdose and unintentional overdose is becoming an increasing issue in the United States. I work in the emergency department (ED) and over the last 5 years I have personally seen an increase in the amount of patients struggling with opioid addiction, overdosing and dying from opioid use. The community in which I live is in Texas and is home to many drug addicts and recovering drug addicts. The town only has a population of 20,000 people and there are 4 drug rehabilitations, 5 sober living houses and over a dozen halfway houses. Not to mention the many homeless/psychiatric patients living on the streets and at the Salvation Army. Opioid drug poisoning has become an epidemic in my community and in communities across the nation. Just the other day I took care of a toddler who had ingested one of her mother’s Oxycontin. It is not only the individuals using the opioids who are affected but everyone that they are in contact with. On another occasion I took care of a patient who was only 21 years old, he was so desperate to use heroin that he had to inject the drug by skin-popping because he had ruined all of his veins. He had used the same area on his abdomen to skin pop and used dirty needles over and over and he obtained a huge abscess in his abdomen. He came back in a few weeks later unresponsive and died from a heroin overdose. I could go on and on about patients I have seen who are suffering with opioid addiction. This article talks about the importance of emergency nurse prevention strategies to help alleviate the incidences of opioid overdose and death as scenarios like these play out across the nation.

Summary

        In this article Patricia Kunz discusses the statistical data related to opioid drug poisoning in the United States. The article talks about how the incidence of opioid pain medication and heroin related deaths have increased in the last 17 years. The deaths connected to opioid pain medication use have gone up by more than 14,000 people in 2014. The death rates associated with heroin use increased by over 500% from 2001-2014 (Kunz Howard, 2016). The article goes on to say that there are states in America that have passed laws to limit the accessibility of prescribing opioids. Kunz (2016) encourages advocacy and prevention strategies to help prevent opioid drug deaths. Some of the strategies include needle exchange programs, injury prevention teaching related to opioid use, naloxone availability and Good Samaritan laws. Kunz advocates for free intranasal naloxone and the implementation of overdose rescue kits. According to Kunz (2016) families and friends can use these overdose rescue kits on persons experiencing opioid overdose and lives can be saved. The article ends by stressing the importance of naloxone teaching by nurses to promote injury prevention (Kunz Howard, 2016).

Personal Reaction

            My personal reaction related to this article was that the statistical data related to opioid death is unbelievable. I know first hand about how big of an issue opioid deaths are but I did not realize that deaths related to opioid use had increased by such a tremendous amount over the last decade. I agree with Kunz that nursing advocacy and education are important for both the patient and the patient’s family to help reduce deaths associated with opioid use. I know that where I live the local pharmacies do not participate in the needle exchange program nor due they provide naloxone to consumers for free or for purchase. It is important that legislators and nurse lobbyist work to make these programs readily available to those who need them to prevent unnecessary deaths. I also feel that patient teaching and education about opioid injury prevention is imperative as well as to provide these patients with necessary community resources to help them stay safe and get clean. The problem seems to be that people dealing with opioid addiction relapse several times before they quit for good. In communities such as mine where heroin and prescription pain medications are easily accessible on the streets people have a hard time remaining clean and end up relapsing and dying. By lobbying for legislation to pass laws for all states to limit the over prescribing of opioid pain analgesics and for the implementation of needle exchange programs and overdose rescue kits maybe we can reduce the amount of deaths associated with opioid use.

 Reference

 Kunz Howard, P. (2016). Injury Prevention is More Than Seat Belts, Helmets and Gun Safety. ENA Connection, 40(6), 6 & 33.