Co-producing a Drug and Alcohol Nursing Subject With Experts by Experience

Abstract

Nurses are frontline workers and have an important role to play in reducing the harms associated with alcohol and other drugs (AOD) dependence. AOD dependence is a major cause of preventable illness, particularly since the overprescribing of opioids has led to a worldwide overdose crisis. However, nurses receive little education in their undergraduate training about AOD or harm reduction strategies. Additionally, the ‘war on drugs’ and associations with criminality, often means that nurses hold negative attitudes towards people with AOD dependence. There is evidence that education can improve nurses’ attitudes towards people with AOD use, especially when it includes narratives, knowledge and expertise of people with lived experience. In this paper, we outline how experts by experience (people with an experience of AOD dependence) and nurse educators developed a high-quality AOD undergraduate nursing subject using a co-production framework. We discuss how the co-production process allowed for the development of a unique and innovative nursing subject that provides students with a humanistic, realistic and pragmatic view of AOD dependence.