In excess of 1,100 health care laborers—including 900 New Yorkers—got training Friday to better their capacities to treat narcotic compulsion.
The training occurred as a feature of the 1199SEIU Institute for Continuing Education. Members included nurses, pharmacists, laboratory technologists and medical records coders. The union and nonunion members were from New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., notwithstanding New York.
To date, in excess of 1,700 laborers have finished the training.
“This gives me more background, more information and the ability to have a more intelligent conversation with my patients,” said Paul Nelson, a substance-misuse clinician at Mount Sinai’s Addiction Institute and a union member who participated in the training Friday.
Nelson is certified as a credentialed alcoholism and substance-misuse guide. Yet, the preparation, he stated, is useful notwithstanding for health care laborers who work routinely with substance-misuse patients.
Amid the preparation, pharmacists covered the utilization of naloxone, a medication to invert narcotic overdose. Different points included co-happening issue and hospital management of overdoses.
Nelson said it was useful to hear the points of view of members from a wide range of territories of health care work.
“When I dispense opioid medication, I educate my patients on the prevention and treatment of addiction and safety concerns of opioid use,” Cally Pitsillos, a registered pharmacist at Rite Aid and a union member, said in a statement. She added that the training was important to her because she wants “to prevent my patients from becoming victims.”
The training, which was free for union members, occurred at John Jay College in Manhattan. It was communicated to seven areas in New York and Massachusetts, just as on the web.
