Kennesaw State University's Wellstar School of Nursing secures funding to address opioid addiction

As Georgia navigates a widespread opioid addiction crisis, researchers in Kennesaw State University's Wellstar School of Nursing (WSON) are leveraging a $1.2 million grant to train budding nurses in addressing substance use disorders.

The researchers – Katherine Barnett, Susan Beidler, Ashley Barber and Lisa Reyes-Walsh – received the grant from the Georgia Opioid Crisis Abatement Trust (GOCAT) for their two-year project, "Nurses Learning About Opioid Use Disorder," or Nurses LOUD.

The grant was made possible following a $636 million settlement reached with three pharmaceutical companies for their complicity in fostering the opioid abuse epidemic. In May 2023, Gov. Brian Kemp established the Georgia Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee, an eight-member committee that will advise GOCAT on the disbursement of funds. The first group of grantees, including two KSU projects, was announced in December 2024.

It's very exciting for the nursing program to receive this grant. With these funds dedicated to our four priorities, we have a unique opportunity to make a meaningful impact on the lives of Georgians affected by the opioid crisis."

Katherine Barnett

Barnett established a four-pillar plan that will train nurses from KSU's bachelor's and master's programs to help patients dealing with substance use disorders:

• Integrating undergraduate curriculum with the graduate curriculum through experiential learning both on and off campus. This will include learning about how to ease stigma and using person-first recovery language, as well as learning interviewing techniques with patients and hearing firsthand accounts of substance use disorder.
• Establishing an interdisciplinary team model between the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) post-graduate certificate students and the Master of Social Work (MSW) students to assess, diagnose, and treat individuals with opioid use disorders. Funding from this grant will pay the salary for two expert advance practice nurses to work in the community. These community partnerships serve rural communities and individuals who are oftentimes uninsured.
• Providing scholarships to 20 students entering the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner post-graduate certificate program and 30 Master of Social Work students entering the PMHNP and MSW programs between January 2025 and November 2026. These graduate students will specialize in caring for and treating individuals with substance use disorders.
• Purchasing Naloxone to train all undergraduate and graduate nursing students as well as all Master of Social Work students in the Wellstar College.

Barnett and Beidler received a $729,000 grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration in 2022 to teach graduate students how to help patients break increasingly deadly opioid addictions. Barnett said work already completed under this federal grant helped WSON secure the latest award from the state.

"The Wellstar College of Health and Human Services continues to be at the forefront of improving public health in the region, and this grant further bolsters our efforts," said Monica Swahn, dean of the Wellstar College. "Our student nurses will enter their profession with the skill and empathy necessary to help alleviate the effects of the opioid epidemic."

In addition to the four nursing researchers, associate professor of sociology Evelina Sterling received $240,000 from GOCAT to develop a community driven project to ease the effects of opioid addiction. Where Nurses LOUD fell under the "training" category of grantees, Sterling's project, "Creating a Campus-Wide, Community-Led Ecosystem to Address the Opioid Epidemic in Georgia" is categorized as "prevention."