UTHSC College of Nursing Offers 3rd Annual Opioid Conference and
Pre-Conference for Prescribing Providers March 2-3
The 3rd Annual Opioid Conference and Pre-Conference for prescribing providers is an excellent educational opportunity for health care professionals in Tennessee, which ranked fifth nationwide in 2020 for deaths by drug overdose, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The free conference, which takes place 8:00 am – 4:45 pm March 3 in Memphis, will provide continuing education credits for physicians, nurses, and pharmacists. Registration is available at cenow.uthsc.edu. Speakers will look at how genetics, trauma, and opportunity contribute to developing opioid dependency and misuse across the lifespan. The conference is ideal for health care professionals and others who care for people with substance use disorder, such police officers and social workers.
The keynote speaker will be Dr. Stephen Loyd, an internal medicine and addiction medicine physician who is chief medical officer for Cedar Recovery in Middle Tennessee. Dr. Loyd is the vice president of the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners. He has been in recovery from opioid and benzodiazepine addiction since 2004. The conference moderator is Jennifer Tourville, DNP, who is executive director of the UT Institute for Public Service, SMART Initiative.
Accompanying speakers include:
- Jennifer Anderson, MD, OB-GYN provider with LeConte Women’s Healthcare, Sevierville, TN and Cedar Recovery in Knoxville
- Jason Yaun, MD, associate professor of Pediatrics at UTHSC, Outpatient General Pediatrics division chief, and the medical director of the ULPS General Pediatrics Clinic
- Clay Jackson, MD, clinical assistant professor of Family Medicine and Psychiatry at UTHSC College of Medicine, where he maintains a private practice in family medicine, and directs the palliative medicine program at the West Cancer Center.
- Paul B. Hill, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UTHSC College of Medicine, and psychiatrist specializing in the treatment of geriatric patients.
- Shawn Hamm, MD, regional medical director for Vertava Health and program director for the Baptist Memorial Medical Education Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program
- Karen Derefinko, PhD, associate professor of Preventive Medicine and Associate Professor of Pharmacology, Addiction Science, and Toxicology at UTHSC.
On March 2, a pre-conference will be offered on “The Opioid Crisis: Prescribing Laws, Harm Reduction, and the Role of Naloxone.” The speaker will be Brian Winbigler, PharmD, MBA. The target audience for the pre-conference is physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, physician assistants, certified nurse midwives, and dentists.
The state of Tennessee requires education related to this topic for licensure, and the course is being provided to help improve knowledge of prescribing laws and harm reduction and to facilitate the best outcomes for patients and prevent misuse. This course, which includes dinner, requires a small fee and will meet the mandatory two hours of continuing education related to prescribing controlled substances. Registration is available at cenow.uthsc.edu.
The conference and pre-conference, which will be held at the FedEx Shelby Farms Event Center, 415 Great View East in Memphis, are hosted by the Advanced Nursing Education Workforce for Healthy Delta Moms and Babies program of the UTHSC College of Nursing, which is funded through a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration.
