Alternate Contact: Elaine Gould 212.998.5568 elaine.gould@nyu.edu The New York University College of Nursing was awarded a three-year, $405,445 grant by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Division of Nursing, to expand its educational programming in substance-related disorders. The grant supports both recruitment to the Substance-Related Disorders (SRD) course sequence in NYU’s Advanced Nursing Practice Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing and Adult Primary Care Nursing tracks and the development of an innovative, evidence-based “tool-kit” of user-friendly educational modules. These will be made available in print and online for use by health professional educators in curricula development.
Substance abuse and addiction are major health problems in the United States. Nurses working in all settings must be competent in diagnosing and referring patients for treatment of SRDs. Since 1989, the NYU College of Nursing has been developing curricula on substance abuse and offers a course sequence on SRDs open to all master’s students. While many mental health nursing students studying at NYU take the substance-related disorders sequence, the College aims to increase the numbers of students taking this sequence with nursing students from other specialty programs. Substance-related disorders are seen frequently in most health settings.
“Most nurses do not feel competent to assess and diagnose substance-related disorders. Some are not familiar with resources for patient referral, and others are reticent to refer because they do not think that treatment is effective,” said Professor Madeline Naegle, PhD, APRN-BC, FAAN, principal investigator. “There is growing recognition that, within primary care settings, we must address not only use of illegal drugs but also smoking, abuse of painkillers, and excessive alcohol use. Our goal is to educate health professionals in the basic skills of identifying and treating all of these problems.”
Grant funding from HRSA will enable the College to bring together an interdisciplinary team to collaborate on the development of the “tool kit.” The kit will include existing curricular materials as well as innovative teaching strategies, online techniques, and Internet-based resources and databases.
“NYU College of Nursing is well-suited and well-located to expand its work in substance abuse,” said Terry Fulmer, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean of the NYU College of Nursing. “We have excellent relationships with the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services and related agencies. Our intent is to help professors at other schools benefit from these resources in putting together syllabi based on evidence-based treatment approaches disseminated from state and federal agencies.”
All students at NYU College of Nursing learn in clinical sites where large numbers of patients have substance-abuse problems. The College aims for both students and faculty to know about the best treatment practices and where to access them.
The College of Nursing at the College of Dentistry is located on New York University’s historic Greenwich Village campus in New York City. The College of Nursing is one of the leading nursing programs in the United States. The College offers a Bachelor of Science in Nursing; Master of Arts and Post-Master’s Certificate Programs; and a Doctor of Philosophy in Research Theory and Development. For more information, visit www.nyu.edu/nursing.