Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Date Created

12-2-2022

Abstract

Christiansen, Erin Lee. Improving healthcare for adult patients with dual diagnoses of chronic pain and opioid use disorder. Unpublished Doctor of Nursing Practice scholarly project, University of Northern Colorado, 2022. Up to 50 million Americans experience chronic pain. Of those who are prescribed opioids, 21% to 29% misuse their prescriptions and 8% to 12% will develop an opioid use disorder. In Colorado alone, the opioid analgesic death rate rose substantially from 102 deaths in 2018 to 540 deaths in 2020. In 2017, the U.S. government declared the sudden rise in prescription opioid overdose-related deaths a nationwide public health emergency. Chronic pain patients who are treated with opioid therapies are at risk for opioid dependency and/or abuse, heroin dependency and/or abuse, overdose, and death from long-term opioid use. Patients diagnosed with chronic pain and substance use disorder, opioid use disorder, or both are in need of individualized, holistic, multidisciplinary treatment plan approaches. The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing Practice scholarly project was to develop a holistic, multidisciplinary clinical pathway to improve pain outcomes in adult patients who have dual diagnoses of chronic pain and opioid use disorder. The clinical pathway was designed to benefit patients treated in a private Midwestern interventional pain management clinic and in similar care environments. Following the Stetler (2001) model, the pathway was created utilizing evidence found in current literature and validated through surveying a panel of experts. A panel of chronic pain experts completed the survey providing data regarding the accuracy, feasibility, potential for provider utilization, and validity of the proposed clinical pathway.

Keywords

chronic pain; opioids; substance use disorder; opioid use disorder; interventional therapies; multidisciplinary; clinical pathway

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