Nurses and other healthcare providers should talk to patients about their cannabis use the same way they talk about other habits like smoking and drinking: routinely and without judgment.
That should happen, but too often doesn’t, said Marian Wilson, registered nurse and associate professor at the Washington State University College of Nursing. She is the lead author on a paper published recently in the journal Pain Management Nursing about shared decision-making in talking about cannabis use.
“We want this paper to guide providers in how they can start opening up this conversation and normalizing it,” Wilson said.
The shared decision-making model starts with either the patient or the provider bringing up the topic of cannabis use, then moving on to specifics about that patient’s situation, benefits, and risks of cannabis use based on research and evidence, and finally formulating a plan.
Central to patient-centered…
