Substance Use Nursing: Stigma-Free Assessment and Treatment Support

Course Purpose

This course discusses nursing assessment, escalation, education, and care-coordination skills across eight topics.

Continuing Education Credit Designation

This educational activity is credited for 4 contact hours at completion of the activity.

Overview

This course discusses nursing assessment, escalation, education, and care-coordination skills across eight topics.

Objectives

Upon completion of this independent study, the learner will be able to:

1. Use person-first language and objective descriptions when discussing substance-related concerns.
2. Distinguish physical dependence, tolerance, and the broader impairment associated with a use disorder.
3. Apply open questions, reflections, affirmations, and summaries to explore patient priorities.
4. Gather a focused substance timeline that includes co-use, recent changes, and previous complications.
5. Prioritize airway, breathing, circulation, and emergency escalation over questionnaires or toxicology testing.
6. Recognize suspected opioid overdose without requiring pinpoint pupils or confirmed exposure.
7. Explain product-directed naloxone use, emergency activation, and breathing support within training and authorized protocol.
8. Reassess for recurrent respiratory depression and communicate response to overdose interventions.
9. Identify alcohol withdrawal risk after reduced intake and escalate seizures or delirium urgently.
10. Recognize the participation requirements and clinical limitations of withdrawal assessment scales.
11. Assess opioid withdrawal severity and escalate gastrointestinal losses or vulnerable clinical circumstances.
12. Support medication reconciliation and continuity without independently restarting or changing treatment.
13. Recognize cocaine-associated chest pain, hyperthermia, seizures, and neurological deterioration as urgent concerns.
14. Identify nutritional risk and incomplete presentations that warrant urgent Wernicke evaluation.
15. Support immediate authorized hypoglycemia treatment while arranging prompt clinician-directed thiamine care.
16. Coordinate feasible transitions, naloxone access, and medication evaluation without requiring counseling participation.

Who this course is for:

Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, registered nurses, licensed practical or vocational nurses, and other healthcare providers in any setting who want continuing education on Substance Use Nursing: Stigma-Free Assessment and Treatment Support.

Course outline

12 sections · finish in any order across devices

1. 1

   Course overview and learning objectives

2. 2

   Introduction

3. 3

   Stigma-Free Relationships and Motivational Interviewing

4. 4

   Substance History, Co-Use, Assessment, and Differential Diagnosis

5. 5

   Opioid Overdose: Breathing Support, Naloxone, and Recurrent Toxicity

6. 6

   Alcohol Withdrawal: Delirium, Seizures, and Escalation

7. 7

   Opioid Withdrawal and Medication Treatment Continuity

8. 8

   Stimulant Toxicity: Chest Pain, Hyperthermia, and Agitation

9. 9

   Nutritional Vulnerability and Wernicke Recognition

10. 10

    Harm Reduction, Shared Planning, Treatment Access, and Safe Transitions

11. 11

    Nursing Considerations

12. 12

    Conclusion

This Course Satisfies

Requirement summaries come from our state requirement records. All Users of Fast CE For Less’s website and content are responsible for knowing their state’s license and renewal requirements.

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