Nurse Practitioners ’ Pivotal Role in Ending the Opioid Epidemic

A tremendous treatment gap exists for the care of persons with opioid use disorder. The vast majority of waivered practitioners, more than 90%, are in urban United States counties. The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of July 2016 enabled nurse practitioners to help fill that gap by prescribing buprenorphine for opioid use disorder. Free training is available for nurse practitioners who can play a key part in stemming the opioid epidemic in the US by obtaining a Drug Enforcement Administration waiver to prescribe buprenorphine, which is a mainstay treatment for opioid addiction.
Source: The Journal for Nurse Practitioners - Category: Nursing Authors: Tags: Feature Article Source Type: research