Johanna Sluser, Kelly Brandon, and Kristin Wason, ACT Now: Advancing Hospital Addiction Care Through a Nurse Liaison Program

This episode explores the Addiction Care Team Nurse Liaison Program (ACTNLP), a program that equips hospital nurses with substance use disorder (SUD) training to reduce stigma and improve outcomes for patients with SUD. Developed within an urban safety-net hospital, the program includes didactics, precepting with addiction specialists, and community site visits. Participants become SUD champions, educators, and leaders on their units. Early outcomes show high program completion and addiction certification rates, strong curriculum relevance, and improved knowledge and engagement. ACTNLP is a feasible, scalable model to enhance nursing capacity to provide addiction care in hospital settings.

Learning Objectives

• Describe the core components of the ACTNL program training and the ACTNL role in clinical implementation on the unit.
• Identify key benefits of training nurses in evidence-based addiction care, including impacts on patient outcomes, interdisciplinary communication, and stigma reduction.
• Recognize the value of the ACTNL program in its efforts to enhance nursing addiction education.
• Identify barriers to implementing nurse-led addiction training programs and explore strategies to overcome them.
• Assess potential for adaptation in diverse healthcare settings.

Host & Guest Bios

1. Kristin Wason, MSN, NP-C, CARN, is a Nurse Practitioner at Boston Medical Center and serves as the Director of the Grayken Addiction Nursing Fellowship, the first addiction fellowship program for registered nurses in the United States. Kristin has experience working in numerous addiction treatment settings and currently provides direct patient care as a member of BMC’s Behavior Response Team and as a methadone provider at HCRC Boston. Kristin has published in several peer reviewed journals and is first author of Addiction Nursing Competencies: A Comprehensive Toolkit for the Addictions Nurse. She has also co-authored and authored numerous guidelines to treat patients with substance use disorders in the outpatient setting.
2. Kelly Brandon, MSN, RNC, CNS, IBCLC, CARN, works as a Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist at San Francisco General Hospital. Prior to her nursing work she was a counselor and program manager for a street outreach program in San Francisco. In her role as the Co-Director of the ACTNL program she aims to bring evidence-based, easy to access, compassionate care to all patients throughout the SFGH hospital system.
3. Johanna Sluser, MSN, FNP-C, CARN-AP, is a nurse practitioner on the Addiction Care Team (ACT) at San Francisco General Hospital and co-director of the ACT Nurse Liaison Program. She has worked in San Francisco’s community behavioral health system since 2016, focusing on crisis mental health services and substance use care. With a strong commitment to harm reduction, she is dedicated to expanding access to low-barrier substance use treatment and providing care that preserves dignity and promotes the health of individuals who use substances.

Timestamps:

• [00:00] Introduction to podcast & series overview
• [01:00] Guest introductions: Kristen, Kelly, Johanna
• [03:00] Learning objectives for the epi

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