NR 503: Week 8(Health policy and Ethics discussion)

I reside in Michigan and a recent bill that was passed in March of 2019 is Bill 0111 (2019) and the sponsor is Peter Lucido. This bill was written to address the opioid epidemic that we are currently facing in the Unit ...

I reside in Michigan and a recent bill that was passed in March of 2019 is Bill 0111 (2019) and the sponsor is Peter Lucido. This bill was written to address the opioid epidemic that we are currently facing in the United States. It requires all prescribers to run a Michigan automated prescription system (MAPS) report on any individual who they will be prescribing or dispensing a controlled substance too, except for hospice patients. Michigan wanted to do their part in decreasing the opioid epidemic. By doing this the principals of advocacy were certainly demonstrated. Advocacy is defined as support or recommendation for a particular cause or policy (Weible, Ingold, Nohrstedt, Henry, & Jenkins-Smith, 2019). In light of the current opioid crisis across the entire United States, Michigan demonstrated advocacy and support against the crisis by adopting and placing this bill into practice. This bill has significantly cut down on the number of opioids prescribed and decreases the potential for misuse of prescribed opioids. Population health was certainly addressed when this bill was enacted as well. Population health was improved and definitely in mind for those who created the bill. In 2017 opioid abuse was one of the most consequential and preventable public health threats in the nation (Gostin, Hodge, & Noe, 2017). Overall, public health has improved although there is limited numerical data available since the bill just began this year. As an emergency department nurse, I can attest to seeing a decreased number of opioid overdoses although it appears that individuals are finding other ways to overdose and reverting to other things such as methamphetamine. Emergency rooms were specifically targeted as a place to help combat the opioid crisis and decrease drug diversion (Elder, DePalma, & Pines, 2018). The American nurses association code of ethics is a basic guideline and ethical standards for nurses and organizations to advocate for the protection of human rights and social justice (Epstein, & Turner, 2015). Relating this to the bill regarding opioids you can see the connection. As nurses and health professionals one of our main goals and desires is to protect people and assure that all individuals have the right to receive fair and appropriate healthcare treatment if they should need it. The portion of this bill requiring prescribers to run a report history on patients regarding controlled substances before prescribing is an example of this. This assures “equality” among patients to assure that patients are not receiving more than they should be of controlled substances. Overall, adopting this bill had only positive intentions for our counties, state, and the nation as a whole. Although not all people are happy, and we may be going from one extreme to another we had to change something because too many lives were being lost secondary to lenient prescribing practices. In summary, this was a major step towards improving public health and a true demonstration of advocacy. Reference: Elder, J. W., DePalma, G., & Pines, J. M. (2018). Optimal implementation of prescription drug monitoring programs in the emergency department. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, 19(2), 387