May 17, 2024

Mercy Home nurse Miranda McDonald recently presented at the Clinical Inquiry to Nursing Innovation Conference on our initiative to spread awareness about Narcan (Naloxone), an intranasal or intramuscular medication that can be used to save someone having an opioid overdose.

“It was really fulfilling,” said McDonald, who has served as Mercy Home’s agency nurse since 2022. “It was cool to really see that the work that I did [at Mercy Home] can turn into something that I can share with other people.”

Cohosted by the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab and the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, the conference gave nurses the space to pursue clinical questions through scholarship, clinical inquiry, research, innovation, evidence-based practice, and translational science. McDonald was one of about 20 other people in Chicago who displayed posters about their own change initiatives.

Informed by the Chicago Health Department, Mercy Home placed boxes of the nasal spray medication on each campus in areas that are known to have high traffic. The medication is free to Mercy Home coworkers and youth, as well as people throughout the community. Narcan is a safe and effective opioid overdose reversal medication.

“It takes about two to three minutes, but it saves someone’s life,” McDonald said. “When you spray it in their nose, it takes the opioid receptors off the brain to help the person overdosing. The goal is to keep them alive before the paramedics arrive.”

Since 2017, the United States has declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency, as millions of Americans are found to be misusing opioids. Unfortunately, Illinois has seen a recent spike in opioid-related deaths. From 2019 to 2021, Illinois saw a 35.8% increase in opioid-related deaths, which was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2010-2020, the opioid overdose death rate among adolescents nearly doubled and Mercy Home’s admissions team has seen a rise in kids with substance use history during that time as well.

Last year, the admissions team reached out to McDonald and Vice President of Organizational Development Emily Neal and asked if there could be some safety plans in case there were ever an emergency on campus. The Home coordinated with Tim Devitt, our substance use counselor. He explained that Mercy Home could receive Narcan for free from the state and that the Home could create a drug overdose prevention program. Now, Mercy Home can get unlimited Narcan and can give it out to the community as well. From July 2023 until February of 2024, Mercy Home had 23 doses ready in case of an on-site emergency and distributed 53 doses of Narcan to the community. 

At Mercy Home there are several distribution boxes positioned throughout our facilities, including our admissions area for any visiting families. McDonald said that the Home incorporated training on administering Narcan into our coworker CPR training programs.

McDonald’s poster included a QR code to link to more information about how others can create a drug overdose prevention program.  “It’s cool to see that what we’re doing can be taken and given to other people and they can do it themselves all for free,” McDonald said.

For McDonald, she said that it was rewarding to see how many people at the conference knew the impact that Mercy Home has on the children of the Chicago area. 

“Almost everyone knew what Mercy Home’s initiative is and who Mercy Home is,” she said. “That was nice to see that we’re well known around Chicago. And it was great to teach people about Narcan who weren’t aware that anyone could use it and that it’s safe to use.”

We are grateful to Nurse Miranda for helping to spread the word about this potentially life-saving initiative.