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Essay, Nursing, Pages: 2

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices: The Opioid Crisis and Its Impact on Psychiatric Nursing

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices: The Opioid Crisis and Its Impact on Psychiatric Nursing

Competing Needs

The most pressing competing demand in addressing the opioid epidemic is finding a balance between providing quality patient care and maintaining workforce well-being. Psychiatric nurses struggle to handle overwhelming workloads since opioid-related admissions keep growing, leaving them to manage withdrawal symptoms, medication-assisted treatment (MAT), and co-occurring psychiatric illness (Harris et al., 2021). Burnout, emotional distress, and turnover rates increase due to insufficient staffing and overwork. Organizations prize patient-centered treatment while disregarding nurse well-being, leading to shortfalls and compromised care: Developing Organizational Policies and Practices: The Opioid Crisis and Its Impact on Psychiatric Nursing.

Another conflicting budget priority is between addictive disease treatment programs and other types of healthcare. MAT, psychiatric treatment, and harm program reduction cost vast sums to maintain, while organizations budget to maintain emergency visits, management of chronic illness, and preventive care. Investment in specialized addictive disease training and additional psychiatric professionals is limited by budget (Alegría et al., 2022). The balance between expanding addictive disease services while making overall economic viability is needed to treat patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) to a complete, efficient capacity.

Relevant Organizational Policy Influencing the Opioid Crisis

My organization has a policy to treat patients with OUD in psychiatric units who are appropriate candidates with MAT. This policy offers patients an FDA-approved medication in the form of buprenorphine, methadone, or naltrexone in addition to therapy to obtain improved outcomes in recovery. This is by evidence-based practice, yet effectiveness is compromised by insufficient training in addiction among psychiatric nurses and nursing and staff deficiencies (Tan et al., 2024). Many nurses indicate that they have not been trained in MAT, causing inconsistencies in practice and disengagement in treatment.

Besides this, the policy lacks an organized harm reduction element in the shape of overdose prevention training or naloxone distribution. MAT does not entirely address overdose and relapse threats independently, most significantly during hospital discharges. Expanding the policy to incorporate methods of harm reduction would better ensure patients’ safety and outcomes in the long term. Closing these gaps would support policy effectiveness and secure an improved patient-centered response to opioid dependency treatment.

Ethical Considerations and Policy Strengths and Challenges

The MAT policy is developing ethically principled practices such as beneficence and nonmaleficence through the provision of evidence-based treatment that reduces opioid craving, rates of relapse, and overdose deaths. It is developing an ethic of justice by ensuring equal access to treatment for addiction, reducing stigma, and insisting that OUD is an illness rather than an immoral failing. Through incorporation in psychiatric facilities, the policy aligns with standards in ethically principled nursing practice and allows patients to recover in the long term (Haddad & Geiger, 2023).

However, there are ethical concerns regarding support for the workforce and resource distribution. Organizations have an ANA Code of Ethics responsibility to have an appropriate work environment that supports this provision (Haddad & Geiger, 2023). Psychiatric nurses experience undue stress and burnout because psychiatric nursing is not adequately staffed or trained in addiction. Additionally, prejudices by individual nurses toward MAT can result in unequal treatment.

Recommended Policy and Practice Changes

In support of MAT implementation, organizations can invest in specialized training for psychiatric nurses focused on addiction. Ongoing training in the management of addiction, harm reduction, and trauma-informed practice can boost nurse confidence and competence in treating OUD patients. Mentorship programs to match psychiatric nurses with professionals in addiction can support interdisciplinary collaboration and improved outcomes. Training and support for nurses can avoid burnout while optimizing the quality of patient care (Tan et al., 2024).

Another policy adjustment needed is to integrate harm reduction practices in psychiatric wards. Releasing patients with naloxone kits, educating patients regarding overdose prevention, and providing peer support in recovery can avoid opioid-related deaths and have improved outcomes in long-term recovery (Bohler et al., 2023). Enlarging follow-up treatment through telemedicine can further support patients during discharge. Implementing these adjustments would constitute an ethically improved, more sustainable, and patient-friendly response to the opioid epidemic.

References

Alegría, M., Zhen-Duan, J., O’Malley, I. S., & DiMarzio, K. (2022). A new agenda for optimizing investments in community mental health and reducing disparities. American Journal of Psychiatry, 179(6), 402–416. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.21100970

Bohler, R. M., Freeman, P. R., Villani, J., Hunt, T., Linas, B. S., Walley, A. Y., Green, T. C., Lofwall, M. R., Bridden, C., Frazier, L. A., Fanucchi, L. C., Talbert, J. C., & Chandler, R. (2023). Fatal opioid overdoses highly impact the policy landscape for naloxone distribution in four states. Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports, 6, 100126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dadr.2022.100126

Haddad, L. M., & Geiger, R. A. (2023, August 14). Nursing ethical considerations. National Library of Medicine; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK526054/

Harris, R. A., Mandell, D. S., Kampman, K. M., Bao, Y., Campbell, K., Cidav, Z., Coviello, D. M., French, R., Livesey, C., Lowenstein, M., Lynch, K. G., McKay, J. R., Oslin, D. W., Wolk, C. B., & Bogner, H. R. (2021). Collaborative care in the treatment of opioid use disorder and mental health conditions in primary care: A clinical study protocol. Contemporary Clinical Trials, 103, 106325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2021.106325

Tan, X., Pan, M., Wan, Z., Yang, Y., Zhang, L., Fang, Y., Li, X., & Shen, M. (2024). Current status and needs of in-service training for psychiatric nurses in 24 provinces of China: A cross-sectional survey. Frontiers in Psychology, 15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1376274

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Question

Module 2 Assignment

The paper you develop in Module 1 will be revisited and revised in Module 2. Review the Assignment instructions for Module 2 to prepare for your revised paper. Module 1 and 2 are two separate papers

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

Competing needs arise within any organization as employees seek to meet their targets and leaders seek to meet company goals. As a leader, successful management of these goals requires establishing priorities and allocating resources accordingly.

Within a healthcare setting, the needs of the workforce, resources, and patients are often in conflict. Mandatory overtime, implementation of staffing ratios, use of unlicensed assisting personnel, and employer reductions of education benefits are examples of practices that might lead to conflicting needs in practice.

Leaders can contribute to both the problem and the solution through policies, action, and inaction. In this Assignment, you will further develop the white paper you began work on in Module 1 by addressing competing needs within your organization.

To Prepare:

  • Review the national healthcare issue/stressor you examined in your Assignment for Module 1, and review the analysis of the healthcare issue/stressor you selected.
  • Identify and review two evidence-based scholarly resources that focus on proposed policies/practices to apply to your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
  • Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post regarding competing needs.

    Developing Organizational Policies and Practices: The Opioid Crisis and Its Impact on Psychiatric Nursing

    Developing Organizational Policies and Practices: The Opioid Crisis and Its Impact on Psychiatric Nursing

The Assignment (1-2 pages):

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

Add a section to the 2-3 page paper you submitted in Module 1. The new section should address the following in 1-2 pages:

  • Identify and describe at least two competing needs impacting your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
  • Describe a relevant policy or practice in your organization that may influence your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
  • Critique the policy for ethical considerations, and explain the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics.
  • Recommend one or more policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients, while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies. Be specific and provide examples.
  • Cite evidence that informs the healthcare issue/stressor and/or the policies, and provide two scholarly resources in support of your policy or practice recommendations.
  • Due to the nature of this assignment, your instructor may require more than 7days to provide you with quality feedback.

Required Reading

https://www.nursingworld.org/coe-view-only

Note: Review all, with special attention to “Provision 6” (pp. 23–26).

http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-23-2018/No1-Jan-2018/Ethical-Nursing-Cost-Containment.html

http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-23-2018/No1-Jan-2018/Ethical-Awareness.html