COH599 Public Health Foundation MPH STUDENT
Opioid Epidemic
Opioid is a narcotic-pain-relieving drug used to relieve pain on a short period of time. Opioid derives from the opium poppy plant. Opioids are categorized by types of type opioids, for example, opiates/opium alkaloids, synthetic opioids and semi-synthetic opioids. Opiates/opium alkaloids include codeine, heroin, morphine and opium. Synthetic opioids are butorphanol, diphenoxylate, fentanyl, meperidine, methadone, pentazocine, and proxyphene. Semi-synthetic opioids are buprenorphine, hydrocodone, hydromorphine, nalbuphine, oxycodone and oxymorphone. The mentioned drugs come in many forms like tablets, capsules and or injections. However, the prolonged usage of opioid has caused an epidemic in health care.
The SWOT analysis below illustrates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the opioid. The strengths of opioids are the following: opioids are effective when used as prescribed, available in many forms, inexpensive to manufacture and tailored to pain. The weaknesses of opioids are addiction, easy to obtain, inexpensive to produce, available in many forms, and available on doctor’s prescription. Opportunities of opioids are the management of pain and the forms of distribution. The opioid threat is addiction, homeless, violence, death, contraband, misuse and illegal.
On September 17, 2019, I meet up with a Registered Nurse and a police officer at a coffee shop. Shirlee Johnson is a registered nurse who works at Sharp Hospital in the emergency department. Scott Davis is a police officer who works for the city of El Cajon. To break the ice of my group, I initiated the conversation by asking them about their encounters with opioids. Both the nurse and police officer mentioned that opioid is saturating the services in their organization. I proceeded to ask questions to the professionals. Some of the questions asked were: what do you see on a daily basis? what do you think are the causes of the opioid crisis? How do you deal with the encounters? What population are most affected by it? and how can we improve the situation? Both professionals stated they are in the front line of the crisis since they witness it on a daily basis. Mr. Davis and Ms. Johnson agree the crisis has taken a toll in the not only in the community, but nationwide. While patrolling the streets, law enforcement observes the increase of the drug use when responding to car accidents, overdoses, accidental deaths, domestic violence. Likewise Ms. Johnson mentions that the increase has cause an influx of patients recovering the emergency room overdosed and after they are stabilized they are very combative, often extremely violent to handle and frequently the staff has to contact law enforcement to restrain and or calm the patient down. Professionals state that opioid doesn’t discriminate and affects everyone in the community. They also mentioned the overly prescribed and illegal production of opioids caused the crisis. In addition, Nurse Johnson and Officer Davis talked about the various methods that have been set in place to decrease the addiction and improve the healthcare of the consumers. Some of these programs include behavioral health services, prevention, and intervention. Although many program has been put in place the opioid is far from being controlled.
As a whole, the problems with opioids exceeded my expectations. My knowledge about it was very limited. After speaking with Mr. Davis and Ms. Johnson, I have a new vantage point. I see the crisis for what it is, chaos and violence. I believe that the federal government intervention needs to increase its presence when it comes to the distribution/prescription of opioids. Furthermore, the government should intervene and try to assist those states where opioids have engulfed by providing support to those in need. The longer we wait the worse it will be since the opioid crisis continues to increase in the United States.
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Strengths |
Weaknesses |
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· Effective · Pain reliver · Available in many forms · Inexpensive to produce · Taylor to pain |
· Addictive · Easy to obtain · Inexpensive to produce · Available in many forms · Doctors prescribe it |
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Opportunities |
Threats |
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· Manage Pain while recovering from injury · Distribution |
· Addiction · Homeless · Violence · Death · Contraband · Misuse · Illegal distribution · Illegal manufactured · Illegal/unregulated |
Reference:
Liu, Lindsy. “Introduction to the Opioid Epidemic.” Poison.Org, National Capital Poison Center, 13 June 2018, www.poison.org/articles/introduction-to-the-opioid-epidemic-182. Accessed 20 Sept. 2019.
Week Three: Writing Assignment. Interprofessional Team in Health
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Interprofessional Team in Health Writing Assignment #3 – ONE PAGE. a) Apply a SWOT analysis to creating an Interprofessional Team to improve healthcare delivery. b) Create a team of at least two other professionals (e.g., law enforcement, psychologist, nursing, medicine, social worker) c) Conduct a structured focus group regarding the opioid epidemic or violence. Develop an ice-breaker Write at least 5 focus group questions Conclude the focus group d) Report on the themes brought forward by your interprofessional team. What did you bring to the discussion that others in different disciplines not? What did those in different disciplines bring to the discussion that you did not? (ONE PAGE) Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) format of analysis is utilized to be an efficient tool to determine the strengths and possibly reduced the challenges or difficulties faced by healthcare industry. The subject of this paper is to focus on the issue of violence as seen with an uprise in the rate of active shooting and any form of hate crime in society. Nate who has served in the military from 2012-2016 and Carlo who is a registered nurse actively working in the bay area gave their inputs in this paper. With the question thrown out “How is the crime rate in your area?” , both professionals attested to the increase in the crime rate in their respective areas of living and both also mentioned the recent shooting outside laurel district bar in east Oakland a few days ago. Carlo, being a healthcare professional, specifically an operating room nurse, feels that violence is something that is learned. He explains that someone who has seen or experienced violence in the family during their childhood learns that violence projected to someone else is the only way to let anger out. While Nate who was a sailor for four years, suggested that the individuals who commit violence are victims themselves. Nate stated the story of his colleagues who became violent because they were traumatized due to being deployed in different war zones. The interviewers background being mental health care, have worked with children suffering from Autism Spectrum disorder as a registered behavior therapist and is now a graduate student. Both the interviewer and the professionals truly believe in further investigating the matter to find the actual problem that is the root cause of the violent behavior of individuals among communities. There were 5 focus group questions that were asked: 1. What violence related news have you heard lately? 2. How did you run across this news? 3. Where were you when that incident happened? 4. What are your emotions about the occurrence? 5. If your family was involved, how would you approach the situation? Both professionals agree that violent behavior is experienced as an individual is growing. They could have experienced or saw these behaviors manifested by their parents, in a violent quarrel for example. To sum up, the strengths of the focus group on violence was that the answers to the problem was attainable and realistic. The focus group had the same point of view even if they were coming from different backgrounds professionally. A weakness I observed was the insufficient data to understand the underlying cause of violence. It also would have been better to have interviewed someone with a background in mental health. Opportunities to participate and work together with other health care departments in attempt to find a solution will arise. The real danger lies in the lack of interest in the issue of violence within different societies and communities.
SAMPLE ASSIGNMENT 3 SWOT INTERPROFESSIONAL x
COH599SAMPLE ASSIGNMENT 3 SWOT IP x |
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RunningHead: OPIOID EPIDEMIC AND INTERPROFESSION EDUCATION 2
OPIOID EPIDEMIC AND INTERPROFESSIONAL EDUCATION 2
Opioid Epidemic and Interprofessional Education
MPH STUDENT
University
Opioid Epidemic Background
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (2019), “Every day, more than 130 people in the United States die after overdosing on opioids” (para. 1). Opioids are prescription pain relievers, heroin, or synthetic opioids. This national crisis began when the pharmaceutical companies denied that opioid pain relievers would lead to addiction. Because of this statement; providers began to prescribe the medications to their patients at a rapid rate. As a result, people died, and nearly 1.7 million people in the US suffered from substance abuse (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2019). To one day, combat the opioid epidemic, there must be new and innovative ways that will reach out to all healthcare fields. The purpose of this experiment is to understand Interprofessional Education and develop a team form different disciplinaries to discuss the concerns of professionals from their point of view.
What is Interprofessional Education
As the world progresses in the healthcare field, so must health education. The thought of Interprofessional Education (IPE) was to improve healthcare by engaging amongst professionals from 2 or more vocations. The focus is to collaborate and develop knowledge and understanding. The goal of IPE is for students to learn how to perform in an interprofessional team. The objective is for the student to be able to use this skill in their future profession (Buring et al. 2009).
SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis on creating an
Interprofessional Team
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Strengths – Gaining knowledge and collaborating with other professionals.
Weaknesses – Many professionals may have the same views concerning a specific topic and not offering an abundance of insight.
Opportunities – Involving more than one discipline, allows for more expertise into the aspect of what other professions understandings are.
Threats – There may be the possibility of more personal opinions than facts.
Interprofessional Team
To combat the opioid epidemic in the United States, the creation of an Interprofessional Team can be helpful to discuss possible causes and solutions. The interprofessional team is being built from members of different vocations to collaborate.
Team Members: Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Pharmacy Technician, Temporomandibular Joint Specialist
Ice Breaker: Tell us the bravest thing you’ve ever done.
Team collaborative questions:
1. Question 1: What do you consider to be the main obstacle for combating the US’s opioid epidemic?
2. Question 2: What considerations should be made when addressing the public for outreach and engagement against opioids?
3. Question 3: Do you think social media has a negative impact on the opioid epidemic, if so, how can it be turned into a positive impact?
4. Question 4: In your current profession, have you engaged in any interventions for someone with substance abuse disorder? If so, what were your methods of intervening?
5. Question 5: Do you have any suggestions for how healthcare can make a difference?
Conclusion: Thank everyone for their time and feedback.
During the interprofessional meeting, there was a discussion as to what the members felt was the biggest obstacle to combating the opioid epidemic. The answer seemed to be consistent across the board. The members stated that they believed that providers were overly prescribing pain medications to patients. Instead, the providers should evaluate a complete history for the patient. Gage if the patients have a history of substance abuse, or if they have genetic vulnerabilities to substance abuse. Another member felt as if the patients who have substance abuse disorders are drug seekers and will visit multiple facilities to receive services and pain medication. The problem here is that not all hospitals and pharmacies communicate with each other. For example, the military pharmacies cannot see the systems for private pharmacies such as CVS or Walgreens.
Additionally, living close to other states allows for patients to travel for emergency care and receive additional medication. All members of the group were able to agree; healthcare can make a difference by standardizing all systems across the platform where all information is shared. The only factor to be considered is that the patients will have to agree to release their information amongst other hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies. Also, reducing the dosage amount of pain medication, increasing follow up appointment where the provider can continuously monitor the patient progress. There was a suggestion that with chronic pain that pain medication should not be the first line of defense. Pain medication would be more beneficial if they were only prescribed for acute pain.
In conclusion, this team was an insightful group of people that presented meaning insight into the opioid epidemic in the united states. The SWOT analysis that was developed on building an interprofessional team, although prepared before the meeting, seemed to be accurate. Many of the professions did share some of the same beliefs and concerns. Also, they were more willing to offer more of their opinions as opposed to sharing any factual information to the topic at hand. However, this was an exciting program which provided significant input.
Reference
Bruing, S. M., Bhushan, A., Broeseker, A., Conway, S., Duncan-Hewitt, W., Hansen, L., & Westberg, S. (2009, Summer). Interprofessional education: definitions, student competencies, and guidelines for implementation. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 73(4), 59. DOI:10.5688/aj730459
National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2019). Opioid Overdose Crisis. Retrieved from https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis
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