Prescription Misuse and the Opioid Crisis
Kacik (2018) reported that more than half (52%) of Americans tested by Quest Diagnostics in 2017 misused prescription drugs, suggesting that medication adherence is increasingly more difficult as the opioid epidemic swells. Most of the misuse stemmed from positive results for nonprescribed or illegal drugs in addition to their prescriptions.
Indeed, about 10% of hospitalizations and 125,000 deaths annually in the United States stem from not taking medications as prescribed, according to one estimate. That can translate to as much as $289 billion per year in excess health-care costs (Kacik, 2018).
ASSIGNMENT:
Assume you are an office nurse in a small family practice. The physicians in the practice have recently attempted to alter their prescribing patterns to address a clearly mounting national problem. Sharp restrictions on opioid prescribing alone, however, will not solve the prescription drug epidemic. Because you have so much direct contact with patients in the practice, you want to be a part of the solution. Identify at least three leadership roles and three management functions that might allow you, as a member of the interprofessional team, to help address the problem. What interprofessional collaboration might be needed to help you implement these leadership roles and management functions?