On December 17, 2020, the Kentucky Society of Addiction Medicine (KYSAM) sent a letter to the Kentucky Board of Nursing, expressing KYSAM’s strong support for the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) Council’s recommended amendments to Kentucky’s professional standards for Kentucky APRNs who prescribe buprenorphine for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD). With the opioid addiction and overdose epidemic significantly impacting the country and Kentucky, KYSAM greatly appreciated the APRN Council’s efforts to increase access to evidence-based OUD treatment and encouraged the Kentucky Board of Nursing to adopt the APRN Council’s recommendations. 

The letter stressed that due to limited access to mental health and addiction treatment professionals in Kentucky, and in light of current national guidelines for the treatment of OUD, many of Kentucky’s current regulations place an undue burden on APRNs’ ability to treat patients with OUD. APRN Council’s proposed changes, as further described in KYSAM’s letter, would allow Kentucky APRNs more flexibility when treating patients with OUD, thereby increasing access to much-needed OUD treatment in Kentucky. 

Read the letter here