This week’s blog is by Natalie Finch (N.Finch1@bradford.ac.uk), assistant professor of mental health nursing at the University of Bradford, UK. Natalie shared her award-winning innovation, supporting student nurses to respond to drug overdoses.
During 2023, 6620 people in England, Wales and Scotland died of a drug overdose (1, 2). This is the highest overdose death rate in Europe, yet as a nation we do not consume drugs at the rate that may of our neighbours in Europe do (3). So why is the deathrate so high? The answer is multilayered and complex. One crucial part of the picture, however, is that our healthcare workforce is not adequately trained to work with people who use drugs. It is estimated that around a third of the population will use illicit drugs at some point in their lives (4). How and why people might use drugs varies greatly, from the recreational through to chronic addiction disorders and everything in between. Regardless of function and mechanism of drug use, there is potential significant negative impact on health and wellbeing (5). In 2020, Dame Carol Black was tasked with reviewing and reporting to the government on the landscape of drugs in England, noting the healthcare workforce had serious deficits in this area (6). It is now recognised that all public facing healthcare practitioners should be able to ask about drug use in a non-judgemental way, provide harm reduction advice and signpost to appropriate sources of help and support (7). Despite this, there is one brief mention of student nurses being able to “discuss the impact of substance and alcohol use” within the Future Nurse Standards (8).This does not go far enough. Knowing what an overdose looks like and how to respond is a lifesaving intervention that can be taught quickly and easily.
We took action
This project saw the nursing team at the University of Bradford work with our local drug and alcohol service, New Vision Bradford, supported by their parent organisation “Waythrough” to come together to deliver a bespoke training package for student nurses on the subject of drug use, harm reduction, and responding to overdose effectively using naloxone. The project aimed to train student nurses how to save a life in an emergency situation but also sought to do much more than that. The project recognised that not every nurse will encounter an overdose, but every nurse is very likely to meet someone who uses drugs. Talking about the practical skill of overdose management was used as a catalyst for wider conversations about compassionate nursing care for people who use drugs, something that is often lacking (9). Challenging stigma in our workforce is at the heart of this project, and feedback suggests this has been successful. The training gives student nurses the opportunity to talk openly with people who have used drugs. Crucially, it also gives them the skills and knowledge to be able to talk confidently and compassionately with drugs users and their friends and family about simple steps they can take to prevent or minimise their risk of overdose.
“ I have completely reconsidered my own judgements around drug users and had to really reconsider my preconceived ideas; there is always an individual behind that label with an individual story. I have noticed an immediate change in myself around the amount of compassion I now show to individuals with a history of drug use” (student feedback)
A public health approach
This public health approach to nursing supports the NHS 10-year plan (10). Further, the recently published neighbourhood health guidelines (11) also stress the importance of preventative care outside of hospital settings in the heart of communities. This is exactly what our project does. From a university perspective we seem to be early adopters of the benefits and opportunities to be found within third sector collaborations and feel strongly that we can and must work with our third sector partners to innovate and dynamicise nurse education to meet the needs of our communities and their ever-changing landscapes.
1. Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2024) Deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales: 2023 registrations. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsrelatedtodrugpoisoninginenglandandwales/2023registrations (Accessed: 20 August 2025).
2. National Records of Scotland (2024) Drug-related deaths in Scotland, 2023. Available at: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/deaths/drug-related-deaths (Accessed: 20 August 2025).
3. European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) (2023) European Drug Report 2023: Trends and Developments. Available at: https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/european-drug-report/2023_pt?page=2 (Accessed: 20 August 2025)
4. Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2024) Drug misuse in England and Wales: year ending March 2024. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/drugmisuseinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2024 (Accessed: 20 August 2025).
5. UK Parliament (2021) Written evidence submitted to the Home Affairs Committee [DPU0007]. Available at: https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/100574/html/ (Accessed: 20 August 2025
6. Black, C. (2020) Review of drugs: phase one report. London: Home Office. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-drugs-phase-one-report (Accessed: 20 August 2025).
7. UK Government (2023) Misuse of illicit drugs and medicines: applying All Our Health. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/misuse-of-illicit-drugs-and-medicines-applying-all-our-health/misuse-of-illicit-drugs-and-medicines-applying-all-our-health (Accessed: 20 August 2025).
8. Nursing and Midwifery Council (2018) Future nurse: Standards of proficiency for registered nurses. London: NMC. Available at: https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/education-standards/future-nurse-proficiencies.pdf (Accessed: 21 August 2025)
9. Nieweglowski, K., Fialkowski, M., & Brody, D. (2022) Stigmatization of people with substance and non-substance use disorders by health professionals: A systematic review. Addictive Behaviors Reports, 16, 100445. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772724623000665 (Accessed: 20 August 2025)
10. Department of Health and Social Care (2025) Fit for the future: 10 Year Health Plan for England. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/10-year-health-plan-for-england-fit-for-the-future (Accessed: 20 August 2025).
11. NHS England (2025) Neighbourhood health guidelines 2025/26. Available at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/neighbourhood-health-guidelines-2025-26/ (Accessed: 20 August 2025).