Piloting an Opioid Risk Screening Tool in Clinical Practice.

Background: Despite much research and many interventions, the opioid epidemic continues to plague the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2021), 136 people die daily from both prescription and illicit opioids. Objective: The goal of this pilot quality improvement project is to examine how the implementation of the Opioid Risk Tool (ORT) in clinical practice might impact the beliefs and attitudes of nurse practitioners (NPs) toward prescribing opioid therapy. Methods: A pre-post design was utilized. A convenience sample recruited participants from a private NP Facebook group. The intervention included a prerecorded presentation on the ORT and the use of the ORT for 8 weeks. Results: While 46 NPs completed the presurvey, only 19 NPs completed the postsurvey. Statistical results did not yield significance, but there were several significant clinical trends discovered. Conclusion: Utilizing the ORT to screen for opioid misuse risks has been shown to improve providers' confidence in opioid prescribing. ORT guides providers in discerning patient risk for developing dependence on opioids. Implications for Nursing: Screening for opioid misuse risk is feasible. ORT adds to the clinical context in deciding a course of treatment in pain management.

Una revisión sobre la profilaxis pre-exposición (PrEP) para la prevención del VIH / The review of Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PreP) for HIV prevention

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) epidemic continues to represent a major global health issue. Today, there are several tools available to prevent the spread of HIV infection. However, there are several constraints to the current prevention strategies including low condom use, low acceptance of testing, low awareness of vulnerability and more emphasis on treatment. Prevention strategy is redirected towards reducing acquisition of HIV. Pre-exposure prophylaxis or “PrEP” is the latest groundbreaking innovation in biomedical research in the prevention of HIV transmission. The purpose of this paper is to review preexposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention including the current guidelines in the use of PreP.

El virus de la Inmunodeficiencia Humana (VIH) continúa representando un importante problema de salud mundial. Hoy en día, existen varias herramientas disponibles para evitar la propagación de la infección por el VIH. Sin embargo, existen varias restricciones a las estrategias de prevención actuales, incluyendo el bajo uso del condón, baja aceptación de la prueba, la escasa conciencia de la vulnerabilidad y un mayor énfasis en el tratamiento. La estrategia de prevención se redirige hacia la reducción de la transmisión del VIH. La profilaxis pre-exposición o "PrEP" es la última innovación pionera en la investigación biomédica en la prevención de la transmisión del VIH. El propósito de este trabajo fue revisar la profilaxis de pre-exposición para la prevención del VIH, incluyendo las directrices actuales en el uso de PrEP.