Opioid Prescribing Risk Management Opportunities for the Advance Nurse Practitioners

Robert Smith

doi:10.31579/2690-8816/035

Abstract

All clinicians are ethically obliged to prescribe responsibly and cautiously to diminish the potential for opioid diversion and to help minimize the growth of the current opioid abuse epidemic. Advance nurse practitioners should establish procedures to better control and limit opioid prescription and develop analgesic regimens to treat pain. The main purpose and goal for this review is to present data congruent with clinical, medical, and legal reports for allowing an appreciation of the possibility of the risk assumed when ordering and prescribing opioids within our podiatry profession. First, the concept and process of risk management as illustrated using a root cause analysis approach will be introduced as well as applying these principles specifically to opioid prescribing will be presented. Then, several examples found in both medical and legal literature documenting the reasons for opioid prescription risk will be presented. Finally, mitigating strategies for safe opioid prescribing will be presented so that mitigation of opioid harm can be possible and realized by the advance nurse practitioner

Highlights

The seasoned astute advance nurse practitioner will remember the national push in 1996 for identification of pain as a primary medical disorder and the approval of oxycodone hydrochloride, popularly known by its brand name OxyContin®, as a ‘minimally addictive pain reliever’ by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the same year [3,13,17,22,23]
The advance nurse practitioner should commit to the riskmitigating strategy that the best ways to prevent opioid overdose are the following: improve opioid prescribing practices, reduce exposure to opioids, prevent misuse, and treat opioid use disorder
That medication errors to include an adverse event is beginning monitored by local, state, and federal agencies; an inference that prescribing a medication to include opioids in of itself can be considered a risk to the advance nurse practitioner and their respective practice

Summary

Robert Smith

Corresponding Author: Robert Smith, Department of Podiatry, works in ORMOND BEACH, FL and specializes in Podiatry, Ormond Beach, Florida, USA Received date: August 02, 2021; Accepted date: August 22, 2021; Published date: September 01, 2021 Citation: Robert Smith (2021). Opioid Prescribing Risk Management Opportunities for the Advance Nurse Practitioners. J. Clinical Research Notes. 2(1). DOI: 10.31579/2690-8816/035

Introduction

Risk Management Principles

Opioids and Medical Malpractice

Mitigating Opioid Prescribing Risk

Findings

Conclusion