One year ago today, Crystal Head of Vernon was the first registered nurse in B.C. to write an opioid agonist treatment (OAT) prescription for opioid use disorder, as part of the provincial government’s overdose response.
Since that time, the nurse prescriber team in Interior Health has grown to include 16 nurses, working in 11 communities to support people with opioid use disorder, including 100 Mile House, Castlegar, Cranbrook, the Elk Valley, Nelson, Penticton, Lillooet, Revelstoke, Trail, Kelowna and Vernon.