Addressing the Issue of Opioid Crisis in Patients

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Table of Contents

Problem Statement, Suggested Solution, and Research Purpose
Research Proposal Draft: Addressing the Issue of Opioid Crisis in Patients
Research Questions, Hypothesis, and Variables with Operational Definitions
Identifying and Defining Study Variables
Operationalized Variables
References

Problem Statement, Suggested Solution, and Research Purpose

The problem of the opioid crisis has been brewing for quite long in the environment of American healthcare. While opioids are currently the only means of relieving the pain from which cancer patients suffer, the current policies concerning the prescription of the medications such as Fentanyl lead to a rapid development of addiction (Volkow, Frieden, Hyde, & Cha, 2014). Therefore, the lack of the appropriate management strategies for preventing addiction among cancer patients must be viewed as an evident problem.

As stressed above, shaping the process of drug medications intake, including the dosage, the frequency, and the amount of the medication provided to the patient, one will be able to handle the issue of opioid crisis in cancer patients. A change in the schedule of the drug intake should also be viewed as an efficient strategy for addressing the instances of chemical dependency development among patients. The identified approaches must be combined with the active promotion of patient education as the means of reducing the deleterious side effects of the medicine. Specifically, patients must be aware of the threat of developing dependency, as well as the tools that must be used to prevent the problem from reaching a drastic scale.

The purpose of the research is, therefore, to compare the traditional tools for managing the opioid crisis in the U.S. healthcare setting and the interventions suggested above. Thus, opportunities for improving the quality of care to a considerable extent will be created. As a result, a rapid improvement in patient outcomes is expected.

Research Proposal Draft: Addressing the Issue of Opioid Crisis in Patients

Introduction

Creating the setting in which patients are provided with the necessary care for alleviating pain and improving the overall quality of life levels is a crucial task faced by the contemporary healthcare practitioners. The specified task requires not only incorporating time-tested techniques that have proven to have a positive effect on the target demographics but also exploring the available opportunities for alleviating pain and preventing possible side effects. Particularly, it is crucial to introduce scheduling techniques, as well as the tools for patient education as the means of managing the opioid crisis that has been spreading across the U.S. healthcare facilities over the past few decades (Kolodny et al., 2015).

Background and Significance of the Problem

The issue has been building in the environment of the American healthcare for quite a while. At present, connections are made between a drop in life expectancy rates among American patients and the provision of standard opioid treatment strategies; particularly, it is assumed that the promotion of the framework leads to at least two-year reduction in life expectancy levels (“Opioid crisis linked to two-year drop in US life expectancy,” 2017). Seeing that the development of chemical dependency leads to significant health issues, as well as a threat of an overdose, the significance of the problem must be deemed as quite large. Without an appropriate intervention, the death toll among the target population is bound to rise, whereas the quality of their lives will drop systematically.

Statement of the Problem and Purpose of the Study

As stressed above, the lack of a coherent prevention and management tool for addressing the instances of developing drug dependency among the patients that are prescribed with medications such as Fentanyl, i.e., the drugs that fall under the category of synthetic pain relievers, should be viewed as the primary problem. The purpose of the study is to define the efficacy of using patient education combined with a change in the process of scheduling and dosing the said medicine to patients that require opioid treatment. Thus, opportunities for improving patient outcomes and the quality of their life can be created (Bohnert et al., 2016).

Research Questions, Hypothesis, and Variables with Operational Definitions

Research Question

Does a change in the process of administering the medications that cause dependency, such as Fentanyl, e.g., a different schedule and a reduction of the amount of the medicine, combined with the active promotion of patient education, allow reducing the death toll caused by overdosing and the side effects caused by the specified drugs among the target population?

Hypothesis: Research and Null

The research hypothesis is that the combination of patient education and a change in the dose of and time for administering the required opioid-based medication to patients will help reduce the side effects, including the drop in life expectancy levels among the identified demographics and the improvement in the quality of their lives. The null hypothesis suggests that there be no tangible difference between the outcomes of either of the techniques.

Identifying and Defining Study Variables

The change in the degree and speed of chemical dependency development is the primary dependent variable of the study. The traditional techniques of reducing pain, i.e., the adoption of opioids, as well as the suggested alternative, including a change in the amount of medicine and the promotion of patient education and agency, are the essential independent variables. Comparing the effects of the two on the patients’ well-being and pain levels will allow defining the ultimate strategy for addressing the issue of opioid crisis.

Operationalized Variables

The process of measuring the variables mentioned above is quite complicated since the perception of pain varies depending on the unique characteristics of a patient. Therefore, a combination of verbal and numerical rating scales will have to be used to determine the pain levels accurately (Ruskin et al., 2014). Thus, the two strategies suggested above will be compared successfully.

References

Bohnert, A. S., Bonar, E. E., Cunningham, R., Greenwald, M. K., Thomas, L., Chermack, S.,… Walton, M. (2016). A pilot randomized clinical trial of an intervention to reduce overdose risk behaviors among emergency department patients at risk for prescription opioid overdose. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 163, 40-47.

Kolodny, A., Courtwright, D. T., Hwang, C. S., Kreiner, P., Eadie, J. L., Clark, T. W., & Alexander, G. C. (2015). The prescription opioid and heroin crisis: A public health approach to an epidemic of addiction. Annual Review of Public Health, 36, 559-574.

Opioid crisis linked to two-year drop in US life expectancy. (2017). BBC News. Web.

Ruskin, D., Lalloo, C., Amaria, K., Stinson, J. N., Kewley, E., Campbell, F.,… McGrath, P. A. (2014). Assessing pain intensity in children with chronic pain: Convergent and discriminant validity of the 0 to 10 numerical rating scale in clinical practice. Pain Research and Management, 19(3), 141-148.

Volkow, N. D., Frieden, T. R., Hyde, P. S., & Cha, S. S. (2014). Medication-assisted therapies – Tackling the opioid-overdose epidemic. New England Journal of Medicine, 370(22), 2063-2066.

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