Inpatient supervised consumption services: A nursing perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29173/cjen200Keywords:
supervised consumption, acute care, inpatient, substance misuseAbstract
Harm reduction reduces the risk of negative effects of health behaviours. Supervised consumption services (SCS) provide clean, safe and supervised locations for substance use. They are one strategy to reduce unintentional overdose and spread of infectious disease. The first in-hospital SCS in Edmonton, Alberta continues to offer services to inpatients. Nurses provide supervision of substance use, health promotion and education to clients. SCS staff also provide education to hospital nursing staff who refer clients for SCS. Despite existing community and hospital SCS, nursing frameworks for SCS and federal and provincial policies that support SCS, implementation of SCS in hospitals is uncommon. Nurses should be informed about SCS and their potential for further implementation. Existing programs can be useful templates for future implementation in hospitals. Nurses can be advocates for harm reduction strategies in their workplace that include SCS.
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Copyright (c) 2022 Danielle Mercier, Matthew Douma, Carmel Montgomery
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The Canadian Journal of Emergency Nursing is published Open Access under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license. Authors retain full copyright.
