Identifying and Responding to Drug and Alcohol Addiction in Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Healthcare Practice (FutureLearn)

Learning from real life examples, you’ll hear from experienced practitioners around the globe and be introduced to addiction assessment tools. You’ll also learn how to conduct screening and brief interventions, and administer naloxone in the case of an overdose.

This course focuses on approaches to drug and alcohol addiction treatment for nurses and other healthcare professionals. It is suitable for those with some knowledge, as well as those with no prior knowledge or qualifications in addiction.
Improve addiction treatment provision in your practice

The addiction treatment approaches and tools in this course cover the whole lifespan, from expectant mothers to older people. You’ll discover how to safeguard the health and wellbeing of people using substances and explore the role of family members.

Ultimately, you will be able to enhance your own service provision with regard to addiction treatment. You’ll discuss the practicalities of providing specific services and consider the role of leadership in implementing new policies and practices in addiction treatment and recovery.
Learn from leading experts in addiction treatment

This course is delivered by global experts in addiction from Trinity College Dublin, practising addiction nurse and midwife experts, and harm reduction specialists.

Your course creators are pioneers of a new Healthy Addiction Treatment (HAT) recovery model, and you’ll learn more about HAT during the course.

The intention of this course is to improve knowledge of addiction treatment approaches in healthcare, and in the longer term, create more addiction specialists.

What topics will you cover?

1. Overview of the approaches to addiction treatment, from detoxification to harm reduction and recovery

2. The health and wellbeing of the person who uses substances, assessment, screening and brief interventions

3. Family members and people who use substances from pregnancy to adolescents to grandparents and inter-generational substance use

4. The practicalities of working in specific services from advising expectant mothers to managing medication misuse among older people and administering naloxone during overdose

5. Enhancing your service provision, identifying client needs and implementing the Healthy Addiction Treatment (HAT) recovery model in nursing and other services

6. The role of leadership and the practicalities of implementing a change in policy or practice

Learning on this course

You can take this self-guided course and learn at your own pace. On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

- Explore non-stigmatising approaches to addiction treatment and recovery using a harm reduction approach

- Develop practical skills in assessment and screening of clients for addiction use

- Evaluate the risk and protective factors for people who use substances and their families

- Identify practical skills in using brief intervention with clients

- Identify practical skills on administering naloxone

- Reflect on how to identify your client needs and implement a model to improve your practise

Who is the course for?

This addiction treatment course is aimed at nurses, midwives, and allied health and social care professionals.

No prior experience or qualifications in addiction are required. The course aims to widen understanding of addiction recovery in the sector.