New profession in cannabusiness - hemp nurse
ACNA's experience in teaching nurses to work with various hemp products that are used by patients to treat a number of diseases or alleviate chronic diseases will be of interest for various thematic events held at the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine.
On the pages of the specialized electronic publication of Ukrainian henchmen, the experience of the self-organization of certain categories of medical personnel in various countries was not once described, which not only raised questions about the need for a professional approach to the use of the therapeutic properties of cannabis in front of officials of their countries, but also organize subject roundtables, symposia, conferences on about this. The experience of self-organization of junior medical personnel in the United States, professionally working with medical hemp will be discussed in this material.
Cannabis can change the lives of older people suffering from chronic pain, anxiety, insomnia, various diseases. However, in the case of cannabis, the method of delivery, dosage, period of use and other issues can become a "stumbling block" for many elderly people. That is why medical personnel specializing in the use of the therapeutic properties of cannabis are increasingly taking part in how older people use medical cannabis in their daily lives.
Eloise Theisen, a certified geriatric nurse practitioner in Walnut Creek, California, has been helping elder people use medical cannabis for more than five years in private practice. According to Ms. Theisen, “With the legalization in California of the possibility of using cannabis for medical purposes, many old people go to the appropriate dispensaries, where staff are not always able to understand the needs of the elderly. In addition, the old people tend to take a lot of drugs, although no one can clearly say how they interact with each other or with medical products made on the basis of hemp. That is why in a significant number of cases the elderly leave the clinic with a product that does not suit them, which further leads to the rejection of the use of the therapeutic properties of the plant. The average age of my clients is 76 years old, 85% of which are women. Cannabis is not like the drugs they are used to, so older patients need to be trained in methods that help them find the best dosage of cannabis-based drugs they need to eliminate the symptoms of disease without showing unwanted side effects. Therefore, it can be said that education is the lion's part of my work. ”
The functions of the hemp nurse include providing recommendations on how exactly hemp in this or that case should be used as efficiently as possible - be it inhalation, tincture, use of a cosmetic, food, dietary supplement or pharmacological drug. It is necessary to explain in each case the possible side effects, assess the possibility of the interaction of the various components of cannabis with other drugs, learn to correctly read the labels on hemp products in order to determine the size of the proposed active substance they need for treatment, etc. It is the hemp nurse who can provide this kind of information and determine the optimal size of the dose needed for the quality use of hemp-based products.
Professional Hemp Nursing Association
In December 2018, Ms. Theisen was elected President of the American Cannabis Nurses Association (American Cannabis Nurses Association, ACNA), a grass-roots professional organization that works to care for older people and patients who need it, using the therapeutic properties of cannabis as a separate certified medical specialization. Created as an educational, outreach and network platform, the Association currently has about 1,200 members working in 47 administrative-territorial units of the United States. It offers the basic curriculum for lifelong online education (conducting regular educational webinars), as well as organizing an annual conference.
One of the main functions of ACNA is a platform on which hemp nurses exchange information that they often cannot discuss in the medical organizations in which they work. ACNA provides them with a brochure outlining the regulatory framework governing their activities, as well as other educational materials that cannabis nurses need for professional work. An electronic platform for access to a database of studies on the therapeutic properties of hemp is under development.
In the meantime, ACNA is in the process of obtaining authority to legitimize its curriculum by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (American Nurses Credentialing Center) - a two-year process that Ms. Theisen hopes will be completed shortly.
Commentary of the Association "Ukrainian technical hemp"
The United States National Council on Nursing (National Council of Nursing Boards of Nursing) has issued the National Nursing Guidelines for Medical Marijuana for the Care of Patients in Need of Hemp Therapy. The above guidelines call for nurses to have a full understanding of the regulatory framework governing their activities in each individual US state and existing medical cannabis programs, relevant scientific, research, and technical developments to help patients recover or alleviate various diseases. However, in the guidelines developed for nurses there are no recommendations on how to use different types of hemp products to maximize the use of it by nurses.
As part of the regularly held Ukrainian Hemp University's specialized Association of Hemp University, questions about the medical use of the therapeutic properties of technical cannabis are traditionally addressed, therefore, ACNA's experience in teaching nurses to work with various cannabis products used by patients to treat a number of diseases or alleviate chronic diseases, It will be interesting for various thematic events held at the National University of Bioresources and Nature Management of Ukraine.