A Cross-Sectional Survey Exploring Nursing Students' Knowledge and Attitudes Regarding Opioids and the Opioid...

The opioid epidemic continues to be a serious public health crisis in the United States. One way to address this issue is to effectively educate future healthcare providers, especially nurses, who play a key role in managing pain and improving opioid-related outcomes.

A 34-item electronic survey was administered to traditional baccalaureate student nurses at a large, public University School of Nursing. The survey was used to assess participant demographics, general knowledge, and attitudes regarding opioids and the opioid epidemic, and relevant personal and professional experiences. Quantitative responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics, ANOVAs, and logistic regression; free-text responses were categorized by frequency of keywords.

In all, 134 students (response rate 42.3%) completed the survey. Increases in student opioid knowledge and confidence scores over the 4 years were statistically significant (p< .001). General opioid attitudes were primarily negative (n = 70; 52.5%) or neutral (n = 54; 40.3%), and few students (n = 12; 9.0%) reported positive experiences caring for patients with substance use disorders. Free-text responses revealed that nursing students are eager to contribute to the conversation regarding how to address this critical public health issue and recognize they have a key role to play in safely supporting patients coping with pain.

Although opioid knowledge and confidence scores were higher for 4th year compared with 1st year nursing students, there is room for continued improvement. Curricula and clinical experiences must thoughtfully integrate opioid and pain management content longitudinally across all years of a nursing program to optimize care for both patients in pain and those coping with substance use disorders.