Small Towns, Big Impact: Psychiatric Nursing and Rural Opioid Safety Strategies

Contact Hours:  0.75 contact hours
Target Audience:  RN, APRN  
Presenter:  Jennifer L. Scott, DNP, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC

Distinguish yourself as a psychiatric nurse leading transformational change in rural and other addiction care settings. Join a network of psychiatric nurses who are advancing addiction care through innovative, evidence-informed education strategies. Discover how rural communities are leveraging their unique strengths to create innovative, sustainable, safe treatment programs utilizing community resources. Participants learn practical strategies for overcoming common barriers, building community partnerships, and implementing effective solutions to provide safe treatment strategies while honoring rural values and resources. Gain the tools and knowledge to:

• Identify strategies to leverage existing community strengths in developing rural safety-focused approaches.
  
• Describe practical approaches to implement and sustain community safety support in rural communities.
  
• Apply risk reduction within psychiatric nursing practice.
• Develop connections with resources that support safety-focused substance use disorder programs in a rural community.
  

Learning Outcome: 

Upon completion of this program, the participant will: 

• Identify two safety-focused strategies that should be considered when implementing sustainable opioid use disorder treatment programs in rural communities.
  

Disclosures:  The APNA planners and faculty have no relevant financial relationships to disclose.  Off-label uses will not be discussed during this presentation. 

Keywords:  Addiction, Education, Rural Health, Partnerships

Price:  Free

Nursing Continuing Professional Development:
0.75 contact hours.  * To receive contact hours, participants must:  Complete all the course components.  Once you have completed the course, post-test, honor statement and evaluation, and earned a passing score of at least 80% on the post-test, your nursing continuing professional development certificate will be generated online and available for immediate printing. Credit cannot be earned unless all course components are completed. No partial credit can be awarded.  

Grant Statement:

Funding for this initiative was made possible (in part) by grant no. 1H79TI088037 from SAMHSA. The views expressed in written conference materials or publications and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Release Date:  November 25, 2025
Access to this course will end:  November 25, 2028

The American Psychiatric Nurses Association is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

© APNA 2025. Reproducing and distributing this material without the written permission of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) is prohibited. 

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