BScN, R.PsychN, Masters of Psychiatric Nursing- Thesis in progress
Presenting on: Wednesday October 27
Session Title: Nurse Prescribing of Opioid Agonist Treatment within Interior Health Region, BC
Session description
As per the Provincial Health Order issued Sept 17th, 2020, the Interior Health B.C. Substance Use Network have worked with provincial, regional, and internal stakeholders to implement nurse prescribing of Buprenorphine/ Naloxone in select communities across the Interior Health Region. This expanded scope of nursing (RN/ RPN) practice comes in response to the need for improved access to opioid agonist treatment (OAT) therapy amid two concurrent public health emergencies (opioid crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic).
Learning Objectives:
To translate knowledge on lessons learned related to the implementation of nurse prescribing
Speaker Biography: I am proud to be a Psychiatric Nurse and use my 10 plus years of experience and skills to support the response to overdose in my health region. Some of my projects as a Substance Use Practice Lead have been focused on; addressing stigma experienced by people who use substances and their family members in health care settings, increasing access to OAT and Addictions Medicine and implementing Nurse prescribing of Buprenorphine/ Naloxone across the IH region. I am passionate about education and am currently working through my thesis in the Masters of Psychiatric Nursing program through Brandon University. My role is regional across the Interior Health service delivery area, but I reside within the Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc First Nations community within Kamloops, BC, where I enjoy a life of running, biking and hiking with my husband and 2 dogs.
Melissa Roe (co-presenter)
BScN- Masters of Nursing in Progress; Regional Practice Leader, Interior Health
I have been a Registered Nurse since 2012 and am very proud to be a nurse. Nursing has offered me an exciting career across many sectors including cardiac care, long-term care and urgent & primary care. In my current role as a Regional Practice Lead in the Professional Practice Office I have the exciting, and sometimes challenging, job of helping expand nursing roles to work to their full scope, for the benefits of the patients they are caring for. I have had the privilege to be involved in the ‘behind the scenes’ work supporting initiation of RN/RPN OAT prescribing in Interior Health, and am a passionate advocate for expanding the provision of this service. I am currently pursing a Master of Science in Nursing at UBC Okanagan. I share my downtime (and work time, these days!) with my two dogs Henry and Nelson. I humbly live on the traditional, unceded territory to the Syilx nation, in beautiful Kelowna BC.