The pharmacist’s role in medication management
Pharmacists possess unique knowledge, skills, and abilities that make them critical team members to help ensure that medication use is optimal, safe, and effective. That is why hospitals and health systems rely on them to take a leading role in addressing the opioid crisis.
The pharmacist’s role in prevention and recovery
Pharmacists are on the vanguard of health care providers facing the opioid crisis because they have the opportunity to interact with patients diagnosed with SUDs more frequently than primary care or specialty medical providers. These frequent interactions give pharmacists more opportunities to properly counsel patients on prevention, to reinforce appropriate use of opioid medications, assist with prescription drug monitoring and urine drug screening, and most of all, serve as advocates and advisors to their patients in recovery.
Education Initiatives
Pharmacists at SUIT offer individual and family counseling during outpatient appointments at the Addiction Medicine Clinic.
Pharmacy students from Midwestern University learn integrated pain management models and team-based addiction interventions from pharmacists at SUIT.
Pharmacists at SUIT teach RUSH medical students, residents and fellows in Addiction Medicine strategies for reducing opioid misuse and collaborating with other SUIT team members on patient care and pain management.
Naloxone Training
SUIT pharmacists recognize the growing need for education, access, and training in the use of Naloxone to address the opioid health crisis. SUIT pharmacists educate people on risk factors that can lead to overdose, how to recognize the signs and stages of an opioid overdose and how to administer the overdose reversal drug Naloxone in either of two delivery models, intra-muscular injection (syringe and needle) and intra-nasal spray (pre-filled syringe and atomizing device).
There are four primary audiences for Naloxone training:
- medical professionals and health care outreach teams
- hospital staff, especially emergency rooms
- patients and their families
- community care providers including first responders