The issue of opioid misuse is increasing at an alarming rate in the in the US and is associated with dire consequences such as mortality and disabilities. According to HHS.gov (2019), two out of three drug overdose deaths in US in the year 2018 involved opioid. Moreover, Painter (2017) reports that opioid crisis is responsible for over 30,000 deaths annually. In the year 2017 alone, drug overdose killed over 70,000 people, with 50,000 of this being numbr being opioid related deaths. Currently, opioid crisis is highly prevalent and affecting everyone despite age, gender, race, status, or ethnic group. Long term use of Opioid is also associated with severe physical, social, psychological, and physiological effects. In fact, in severe cases, users can develop opioid use disorder and the associated withdrawal symptoms such as inability to control opioid use, inability to carry out work or academic responsibilities, and addiction, inability to conduct activities of daily life, and social and interpersonal problems. Concerning economic implications, opioid use disorder and associated symptoms requires heavy financial resources to manage, which causes remarkable financial burden on individuals, state, and federal government. Based on the above mentioned facts, the issue of opioid crisis is crucial and needs to be included in the legislative agenda of government.
Nurses can play significant role in setting agenda for opioid crisis such as provision of professional advice, early detection and prevention of opioid abuse and misuse, monitoring of opioid prescription, thus, can help in identification of patients who begin to be addicted (Hunnicutt et al., 2018). Nurses can also play advocacy roles by championing for application of best policies and techniques in managing pain, developing protocols for treating opioid addiction, and formulation of new standards on writing opioid prescription.
It has been established that the misuse and addiction of opioids possess a serious national crisis with negative effects on public health, economic, and social wellbeing. The seriousness of opioid crisis attracted the attention of Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump who made significant contributions to address the issue. It is imperative for government to set serious health issues such as opioid crisis in government agenda to help in strengthening health systems and provide resources such as human and financial to address the issue. Moreover, setting opioid as legislative agenda is crucial in policy development and strategic management and planning for the issue.
Health and Human Services (HHS). (2019). Trump Administration Announces $1.8 Billion in Funding to States to Continue Combating Opioid Crisis. https://public3.pagefreezer.com/browse/HHS.gov/31-12-2020T08:51/https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2019/09/04/trump-admin
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