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The unprecedented public health opioid epidemic in America has created a tremendous economic burden. Exorbitant costs from premature mortality, criminal justice, childcare and family assistance, lost productivity, and healthcare services are skyrocketing. Given the escalating economic burden of this national crisis, nurses as frontline providers are called to action to combat the opioid epidemic through the provision of comprehensive, cost-effective, humanistic levels of prevention, including primary, secondary, and tertiary care.
Presently, the United States is in the midst of a major, unprecedented public health opioid epidemic that traverses race, ethnicity, gender, age, health status, and socioeconomic level (BrinkleyRubinstein et al., 2018; Chimbar & Moleta, 2018; Cox & Naegle, 2019). The opioid epidemic, now a crisis in America, reflects the deadliest in history with predictions the death toll will continue to escalate in years to come (Bennet et al., 2018). Despite billions of dollars allocated to address the opioid epidemic, the crisis has worsened, with more deadly outcomes (Johnson, 2018). More opioidrelated deaths occur per year than mortality from recent wars, motor vehicle accidents, gun violence, and human immunodeficiency virus (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2019a; Siegel, 2018; Velander, 2018). In 2016, the national death rate from opioid overdose was 21.7 deaths per 100,000, reflecting a dramatic increase since 2013 when the U.S. rate was 7.6 deaths per 100,000 (National Institute of Drug Abuse, 2019).
Recognizing that nurses are the most trusted of health professionals, account for the largest number of healthcare providers, and have the most frequent interpersonal contact with patients and families, the important role of nurses in combatting the opioid crisis has been recognized (American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], 2019a; American Nurses Association, 2016). The purpose of this integrative review is to examine the economic burden of the opioid epidemic based on published evidence to inform practice, education, research, and policy development in nursing to combat this escalating crisis.
Method
In this integrative review, the authors used interprofessional academic and federal analysis literature published in English between 2013 and 2019. Seven electronic databases were used to identify relevant published articles and included Directory of Open Access Journals, EBSCOhost, Elsevier, Google Scholar, ProQuest Document, PubMed, and Science Direct. Key terms for these sites included cost opioid, cost opioid crisis,...