An expert group representing greater than 5 million nurses within the U.S. has introduced its formal recognition of hashish as a nursing specialty apply space.
The American Nurses Affiliation (ANA) stated in a press launch in regards to the change on Wednesday that hashish nurses play an necessary function in offering sufferers with training and steerage on incorporating marijuana into therapy.
“This recognition highlights the important function and particular contribution of hashish nurses to the well being care system and promotes enhanced integration of hashish therapies for well being care shoppers throughout various well being care settings,” ANA President Jennifer Mensik Kennedy stated.
The group payments itself as “the only real reviewing physique of specialty nursing scope of apply and requirements of apply.”
ANA President Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, PHD, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN introduced the official recognition of Hashish Nursing as a Specialty Nursing Follow as we speak!
Learn ANA’s assertion which features a quote from ACNA President Rachel Parmelee👇https://t.co/RHggfqBvRR* pic.twitter.com/zc0K3qYFOg
— American Hashish Nurses Affiliation (@CannabisNurses) September 28, 2023
The group additionally gave a nod to a separate group, the American Hashish Nurses Affiliation (ACNA), which advocates for analysis, training and coverage reform round medical marijuana. ANA credited that group for “pioneering the hashish nursing discipline” and “contributing to the broader panorama of nursing apply and affected person care.”
Rachel Parmelee, the president of ACNA, stated the group was “deeply gratified by the groundbreaking institution of hashish nursing as an ANA-recognized nursing specialty.”
“Nurses are the biggest group of well being professionals, offering a chance to vary the well being care paradigm and embody various wellness modalities past conventional Western medication,” Parmalee stated in an announcement. “Hashish nursing requires specialised data and competencies to navigate care and handle the stigma related to medical hashish use to help a wholesome society. We search to create lasting, transformative change that enriches each specialised and basic nursing practices, finally serving the well-being of sufferers nationwide.”
In its announcement, ANA additionally expressed its help for “the urgency of scientific analysis to tell sufferers on the efficacy of marijuana and associated cannabinioids,” pointing to a 2021 place statement from the group on the therapeutic use of hashish.
Amongst different issues, that assertion referred to as for “relisting marijuana as a federal Schedule II managed substance for functions of facilitating analysis,” growing evidence-based requirements for dosing and use, defending sufferers from civil or felony penalties for marijuana use and exempting care suppliers from felony prosecution, civil legal responsibility or skilled sanctions for discussing or recommending marijuana.
Broadly talking, America’s nurses have been typically supportive of legalizing marijuana. A survey again in 2018, which polled 1,054 nurses, discovered that 82 % endorsed legalizing medical marijuana, whereas 57 % supported legalization for grownup use.
Regardless of some growth of hashish analysis lately, important obstacles stay. Earlier this month, a number of federal companies participated in a wide-ranging dialogue about marijuana analysis boundaries beneath prohibition, efforts to create a regulated pathway for CBD, state initiatives to advertise social fairness and extra.
Companies that participated had been the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA), Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Facilities for Ailments Management and Prevention (CDC), Nationwide Most cancers Institute (NCI) and Nationwide Middle for Complementary and Integrative Well being (NCCIH).
One outstanding theme was the numerous challenges going through scientists who need to analysis marijuana because of the plant’s Schedule I standing beneath the Managed Substances Act (CSA).
A current report within the journal PLoS ONE discovered that sufferers with persistent well being circumstances skilled important enhancements in general high quality of life and reductions in fatigue in the course of the first three months of medical marijuana use.