Assessment of Provider Attitudes Toward #Naloxone on Twitter
BACKGROUND:
As
opioid overdose rates continue to pose a major public health crisis, the need
for naloxone treatment by emergency first responders is critical. Little is
known about the views of those who administer naloxone. The current study
examines attitudes of health professionals on the social media platform Twitter
to better understand their perceptions of opioid users, the role of naloxone
and potential training needs.
METHODS:
Public
comments on Twitter regarding naloxone were collected for a period of three
consecutive months. The occupations of individuals who posted tweets were
identified through Twitter profiles or hashtags. Categories of emergency
service first responders and medical personnel were created. Qualitative
analysis using a grounded theory approach was used to produce thematic content.
The relationships between occupation and each theme were analyzed using Pearson
chi-square statistics and post-hoc analyses.
RESULTS:
A total
of 368 individuals posted 467 naloxone-related tweets. Occupations consisted of
professional first responders such as emergency medical technicians (EMTs),
firefighters, and paramedics (n = 122); law enforcement officers (n = 70);
nurses (n = 62); physicians (n = 48); other health professionals including
pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, counselors, social workers (n = 31);
naloxone-trained individuals (n = 12); and students (n = 23). Primary themes
included burnout, education and training, information-seeking, news updates,
optimism, policy and economics, stigma, and treatment. The highest levels of
burnout, fatigue and stigma regarding naloxone and opioid overdose were among
nurses, EMTs, other health care providers and physicians. In contrast,
individuals who self-identified as "naloxone-trained" had the highest
optimism and the lowest amount of burnout and stigma.
CONCLUSIONS:
Provider
training and refinement of naloxone administration procedures is needed to
improve treatment outcomes and reduce provider stigma. Social networking sites
such as Twitter may have potential for offering psychoeducation to health care
providers.
- 1 PGSP-Stanford University Psy.D. Consortium, Palo Alto University , Los Altos , CA , USA.
- 2 VA Palo Alto Health Care System , Palo Alto , CA , USA.
- 3 Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences , Stanford University School of Medicine , Stanford , CA , USA.
- Subst Abus. 2016 Feb 9:0.
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