VIDEO: Infusing equity in nursing education to address barriers in substance use disorder care

Infusing diversity, equity and inclusion in educational systems can help address structural and cultural barriers and stigma in substance use disorder care, according to a presentation during the American Psychiatric Nurses Association Annual Conference.

“We want to drive home that there’s various barriers to accessible and effective substance use disorder care, which are stigma — including language, cultural and structural stigmas – that are pretty much infused in our culture and also an insufficiency of an adequately trained and accessible substance use disorder workforce,” presenter Karen Werder, PhD, PMHNP-BC, assistant clinical professor in the department of nursing at Sonoma State University in California, told Healio in a video interview.

Especially in nurse practitioner education systems, Werder said there’s a “need to be intentional about our curriculum design to address these barriers and provide effective substance use disorder care.”

Werder talked about the curriculum for nurse practitioners and the “hidden curriculum,” which is the often-unintentional attitudes and biases that are rooted in lessons.

“We feel like curriculum infusion is necessary, which is basically blending the key concepts of diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the standard academic course content,” Werder said. “We want learners to be able to internalize these concepts and engage with faculty who are versed, have addressed their own biases and who understand substance use disorder treatment.”

Werder also offered the next steps for curriculum design to promote social justice.

“We want to kind of shake people up and say okay we need to do this,” Werder concluded. “Our culture is changing, our language is changing and we need to address these issues now, or yesterday.”