Oncology Nurses Have a Responsibility to Identify and Prevent Opioid Abuse in Patients With Cancer

As the opioid abuse epidemic prevails in the United States, patients with cancer can be affected. Yu-Ping Chang, PhD, RN, FGSA, associate dean for research and scholarship in the School of Nursing at the University at Buffalo in New York, and Tonya Edwards, MS, MSN, BSN, FNP-C, a nurse practitioner of supportive care at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, discussed how the opioid epidemic affects patients and how to identify and prevent opioid and substance abuse during a session at the 43rd Annual Congress in Washington, DC.