Be-SAFE©: A Guide for Emergency Department Nurses Responding to Opioid Overdoses in Personal Vehicles

Abstract

Opioid overdose-related emergency department visits have increased in the last several decades, prompting concern from providers about how to respond to patients experiencing opioid overdoses who arrive in private vehicles. In this study, our research team developed and utilized an iBook intervention to teach nursing staff how to safely attend to opioid overdoses that occur outside of the department. We discuss our study methods and aims, including development of the Be-SAFE© iBook content with the input of an interprofessional team of key stakeholders. Fifteen training sessions were delivered to 89 ED nursing personnel across five regional hospitals. Nurses (n=69) completed knowledge pre-and post-surveys and a Be-SAFE© Response Program Evaluation. Our results indicate that the Be-SAFE© iBook was useful to ED nursing staff and significantly increased the specific areas of knowledge regarding risk factors and actions related to opioid overdoses that occur in private vehicles.