Grant will help train nurse practitioners, tackle addiction

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - UNCW has been awarded a $300,000 grant to help train nurse practitioners, who may be able to write prescriptions for medications that will help fight addiction.

Leaders at the university believe that this will increase access to vital treatments for those in need.

“We know that if we have patients on Bureprenorphine, they’re less likely to overdose on other drugs,” said UNCW assistant professor of nursing Amanda Culp-Roche. “And so it’s really just prevention of opioid overdose, prevention of death really, allowing those patients to be back in the community and part of their children’s lives, part of the community.”

There are several hoops providers must jump through to be able to write prescriptions and the hope is that this training will be part of the normal program for nurse practitioners.

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