CTN-0089: Integrating Nurse Practitioner Buprenorphine Waiver Training into Graduate Nursing Curriculum

Carolyn Bogdon, MSN, FNP-BC
Lead investigator

Medical University of South Carolina
Emergency Department MAT Program
bogdon@musc.edu

This protocol will address barriers to the nurse practioner’s (NP’s) ability to prescribe buprenorphine by incorporating waiver education into NP final semester curriculum. The initial eight hours of training would be provided to students in a face-to-face classroom setting or via live video streaming. The remaining 16 hours would be completed by the NP students through online modules offered by the AANP. Trained NP students would be eligible for one year of peer-to-peer mentorship and inclusion in the MUSC Project ECHO tele-mentoring for new providers. Outcomes to be tracked would be the number of NPs trained who obtain their waiver and the number of individuals treated with MAT by the NPs trained. Secondary data collected would offer insight into waiver obtainment processes and determine the need for mentorship for newly waivered providers.

Funded by the NIH HEAL InitiativeSM.

Primary Findings

This project addressed barriers to the NP’s ability to prescribe buprenorphine by incorporating waiver education into NP curriculum, which allows NPs to be eligible to apply for their buprenorphine waiver upon graduation and obtainment of DEA licensure. Buprenorphine-waiver trainings were conducted at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) campus. A total of 150 NP or Physician Assistant students (from MUSC, Francis Marion University, University of South Carolina, Anderson University, and Charleston Southern University) were trained. The training was also made available to interested providers with 6 physicians choosing to attend the training.

    Node Involvement

    Lead Node(s):

  • Southern Consortium Node

  • All Participating Nodes:

  • Southern Consortium Node