PCSS - Cohort Five

As this project is educationally focused, the population they are training are advanced practice nurses who will assess and prescribe medications for adults with substance use disorders/opioid use disorder (SUD/OUD). They aim to provide education related to the assessment and management specific to OUD to nurse practitioner students both locally and nationally through the Advanced Practice NuRses’ Opioid Use Disorder Education Through a Massive Open Online Course or APROUD-MOOC. The MOOC will contain educational modules to support competent advanced practice nursing care, decrease stigma towards those with substance dependency and addiction, as well as mitigate barriers to prescribing evidence-based, FDA approved medications to treat OUD.

The program’s population to be trained is the Purdue University School of Nursing (PUSON) graduate students who are enrolled to become nurse practitioners (NPs), as well as additional students who will use the online education outside of Purdue. These online educational partners are Purdue Global School of Nursing and Chamberlain University School of Nursing; both organizations draw graduate nursing students from across the country.

Contact Information: spsacctmgmt@purdue.edu

This project aims to train SPs in health equity and structural competency to provide and facilitate structurally competent SP encounters with health professions students that address the complex medico-social issues surrounding all drug use, with particular attention to opioid use. They aim is to address the disparities present in our healthcare system surrounding race and addiction-related outcomes by enhancing the comfort and skill trainees have related to structural competency training and provision of person-centered SUD services to patients from diverse backgrounds upon entrance into clinical practice.

The catchment area for this project is the state of Colorado, as trainees from the University of Colorado School of Medicine regularly travel across the state as part of their education to provide services to underserved populations. The target population is the cohort of standardized patients (SPs) who regularly service trainees in controlled settings in health professions.

Contact Information: tyler.coyle@cuanschutz.edu

In South Dakota, 65 of 66 counties contain a medically underserved community, area, or population, with most counties experiencing health professions shortages in primary care, mental healthcare, and dental healthcare. This project is a collaborative partnership between the University of South Dakota Stanford School of Medicine and the School of Health Sciences, which trains doctors and physician assistants. The project's primary goal is to increase access to MAT for OUD and SUD across South Dakota, a rural state with large portions of the population having difficulties accessing medical services. Another goal is to make MAT for OUD and SUD the norm for primary care providers and equip them with the skills needed to identify and give treatment to those with addiction. This will contribute to the broader effort of reducing the stigma associated with addiction and promoting access to treatment.

Contact Information: susan.anderson@usd.edu