When Pain and Substance Use Disorder Coexist: Ethics, Stigma, and Compassion

This program will begin with a discussion of ethical considerations related to pain management in patients undergoing treatment for substance use disorder. Followed by case studies taken from clinical practice to further illustrate how nurses can apply ethics in providing compassionate care to decrease stigma and improve pain management in this often marginalized group of patients.

Dr. Bernhofer is an Associate Professor, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH. She is an educator and researcher. Her program of research includes bioethics and values-based pain management. Dr. Bernhofer has published extensively including development of a tool to measure pain management values in clinicians, research in education regarding ethics and values in the management of pain, and development of a values-based pain management model. She speaks locally and nationally (US) on pain management education and ethics. 

Dr. Quinlan-Colwell is a clinical nurse specialist in pain management at New Hanover Regional Medical Center, adjunct faculty member at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and an independent educator consultant in pain management in Wilmington, NC. During her last 20 years in pain management, she has worked at Duke University Medical Center as a CNS and pain program coordinator and with the hospices of UNC Chapel Hill and Duke.