UIC Launches Program to Train Nurse Practitioners to Treat OUD Patients

The University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing has launched a training program for new nurse practitioner graduates to work with opioid use disorder patients. The program is being funded with a $1.8 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration.

For the next 5 years, at least 2 trainees selected from a national pool will be able to complete the training program each year. Trainees will rotate through the UI Health network of federally qualified health centers, which primarily serve the west and southwest sides of Chicago. Program participants also will receive training at a syringe exchange site that doubles as a primary care clinic, as well as in a mobile van, both of which are operated by UIC Community Outreach Intervention Projects.

The program curriculum also includes:

• SUD prevention and treatment education
• MAT waiver training
• An interpersonal workshop on diagnosis and management of serious mental illness and SUD
• Rush University Medical Center Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Fellowship ECHO Program

UIC is launching the program as CDC reports a record 93,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2020, according to preliminary data. From January to June 2020, 573 opioid overdose deaths were reported in Chicago specifically, a 50% increase from the same period a year prior.