The article, “An Implementation-Focused Qualitative Exploration of Pharmacist Needs Regarding an Opioid Use Disorder Screening and Brief Intervention,” has been published in SAj.
The authors state that screening and brief interventions (SBI) can help identify opioid safety risks and healthcare professionals can accordingly intervene without a significant increase in workload. Pharmacists, one of the most accessible healthcare professionals, are uniquely positioned to offer SBI. To design an effective intervention with high potential for implementation, we explored pharmacist needs and barriers regarding SBI for opioid use disorders.
In the AUTHORS’ OWN WORDS, they relate the importance of their work:
“Prescription-opioid-involved death rates increased by 16% in 2020, despite the declining trend in opioid prescribing rates observed since 2012. While stricter opioid prescribing guidelines have not sufficiently addressed opioid safety concerns, they have also led to opioid access issues. Prevention interventions such as screening, education, prescription monitoring programs, and naloxone dispensing can reduce risky opioid use and promote opioid safety, while ensuring appropriate medication access. Community pharmacists are uniquely positioned to offer opioid use disorder (OUD) prevention interventions due to their high accessibility and medication expertise. Pharmacists can aid in primary prevention of OUD by counseling patients regarding safe medication use and be involved in secondary (screening) and tertiary (harm reduction) prevention. However, in the United States, the role of the community pharmacist in OUD prevention has been limited.”
“The development of a pharmacy-based SBI must incorporate pharmacist views in initial design. This will lead to the development of an intervention that is more feasible for pharmacists to deliver, with greater chance of successful implementation. To design an effective SBI with high potential for implementation, we explored such needs and barriers regarding SBI among community pharmacists dispensing opioid prescriptions. We expected to identify needs such as training to deliver intervention and barriers such as managing time and balancing responsibilities.”