PittPharmacy class of 2018 students, Dilafruz Khakimova and Brittany Lewis, conducted an interactive workshop related to opioid overdose prevention and naloxone at the Salvation Army Harbor Light Center, located in the Northside of Pittsburgh, as part of of their Albert Schweitzer Fellowship project in January 2017. This session, Naloxone: The Opiate Antidote to Save a Life-Simulation Workshop, was one of a series of monthly workshops given to help increase awareness and education of opioid overdose prevention tactics and the role that naloxone can play in saving lives. The overall goal for the workshop was to provide the residents with a unique clinical perspective that supplemented any personal experiences they may have had with opioid use. Residents also had the opportunity to experience administering naloxone auto injector (Evzio) to an overdose victim represented by a human patient simulator. The simulator enabled them to see the changes in heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate when an overdose occurs and how naloxone works to normalize these values to save someone’s life. Topics addressed throughout the presentation included prevalence of opioid overdose, recognizing the signs/symptoms of an overdose, naloxone and how it works, and community resources available to obtain naloxone.
