“ We were able to gather all these diverse perspectives , to talk about opioid stewardship , to talk about the barriers they ’ re each facing , what ’ s preventing progress in this field , and how can we collectively come together to drive change ,” Gerland says . “ All of those conversations over seven or eight months built an actionable and practical guide for healthcare organizations through the playbook , which in turn is what the HealthStream course is built on .”
HEALTHSTREAM-NQF PARTNERSHIP PUTS TOOLS INTO MORE HANDS
The new course accomplishes that effectively by allowing clinicians who do not have much experience with opioids to grow in knowledge , while those with strong practical skills add to their own awareness .
“ Within each of those areas or fundamentals we came up with a set of best practices or implementation strategies , and separated those into basic , intermediate , and advanced levels ,” Gerland explains . “ The information flows freely between the categories , so administrators or clinicians at a major academic medical center with lots of resources can find what they need as easily as a smaller institution which may not be as far along in its development .”
The goal is for participants to bring their opioid stewardship program to the next level , eventually becoming national leaders . That ’ s why both the playbook and course are designed to be living , breathing entities that adapt and evolve , and also are focused on real-world , implementable solutions .
LEVELS OF COURSEWORK ENSURE WIDER ENGAGEMENT ACROSS PROVIDERS
In addition to incorporating strategies for varying levels of expertise , the course is also divided into modules that are targeted to the specific needs of two main cohorts :
Organizational level : Courses for administrators , leaders , or quality improvement specialists , or those who allocate resources to them .
Direct-care level : Clinicians , from doctors and nurses to physical therapists , pain management specialists , assistants , technicians , and anyone else on a patient care team .
“ We feel like there ’ s real value in all of those diverse groups being engaged in an opioid stewardship program and being able to benefit from a lot of the strategies included in the playbook and the training modules ,” Giblin says . “ They must all be able to work together . The opioid crisis is really big . This brings it down into true implementation steps to get a stewardship program off the ground and drive progress .”
That means providing clear guidance for organizations on concrete steps and strategies they can take to improve opioid prescribing practices , such as ensuring pain-management practices align with best practices in the field and that organization and clinician alike feel empowered to do their part to help solve the epidemic .