Naloxone administration by nonmedical providers- a descriptive study of County sheriff department training
- PDF / 544,186 Bytes
- 4 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 55 Downloads / 169 Views
(2020) 15:86
COMMENTARY
Open Access
Naloxone administration by nonmedical providers- a descriptive study of County sheriff department training Alan Janssen, Brittany Garove and Virginia LaBond*
Abstract The study background: In 2015 a county sheriff department in Michigan began a training program for its deputies on administration of naloxone for non-medical providers. Methods: A descriptive analysis was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Data collected from the Sheriff’s department allowed the study to quantify the incidence of naloxone administration, describe characteristics related to the administration, and report on aggregate outcomes. Results: Of the reported 184 incidents involving naloxone use the sheriff department had an overall successful administration rate of 94.6% in the cases from 2015 to 2017. It was also noted that the overall number of naloxone administrations showed an upward trend with a greater number of trained deputies. Conclusion: The outcome of training non-medical first responders in naloxone administration has been shown to be successful with regard to resuscitation of patients with opioid overdose. Keywords: Non-medical naloxone administration
Introduction There are few communities today naive to the burdensome impact of rising narcotic abuse, since the US Department of Health and Human Services declared it as a nationwide public health threat in October 2016 [1]. The class of narcotics includes prescribed medications such as morphine, methadone, hydrocodone, and oxycodone as well as other illicit opioids. Other illicit opioids include heroin and fentanyl. With a rise in the use of narcotics there is also a subsequent increase in the number of overdoses and deaths. The CDC reported over 47,000 opioid related deaths in the US in 2017 [2]. This amounts to an average of 130 people daily. Compared to 1999, these numbers have escalated six-fold [3].
* Correspondence: [email protected] Ascension Genesys Hospital, One Genesys Parkwa, Grand Blanc, Mi 48439, USA
The growing trend was initially noted in the 1990s, around the time of an upsurge in narcotic prescribing. Despite changes in physician prescribing practices since that time, narcotic use grows with the availability of inexpensive heroin and synthetic opioids [3]. These substances can often have high potency, with illicitly manufactured fentanyl being 50 times that of heroin, and carfentanyl having 10,000 times the potency of morphine [4]. Massive efforts are underway at both the local and federal levels to curtail this expanding crisis. There has been a focus on education of both the public and healthcare professionals as well as providing resources to those currently suffering opioid addiction [3]. Foreign policies have been enacted to help reduce the influx of illicit substances into the US [5]. Also, the medication Naloxone has become widely available and proven effective in treating the acute overdose victims [6].
© The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attributio
Data Loading...
