LAUSR

It is my pleasure to introduce this issue of the Journal of Addictions Nursing. In this issue, articles address a number of important topics in the addictions field, including substance use across the lifespan and nurses' roles in numerous settings. We begin with a Guest Editorial, “A Call to Action,” by Dr. Ruthanne Palumbo. Dr. Palumbo discusses defining the nurse's role in harm reduction in acute care settings, an important topic for all nurses. Dr. Tonja Padgett discusses the advantages of providing medication treatment for substance use disorders in outpatient primary care offices, while at the same time addressing the potential drawback for the disruption of the continuity of care regarding psychotherapy treatment. She concludes that it may be clinically significant to set up follow-up communication so that the clinician and the therapy provider can maximize treatment success. Dr. KennethMcRae's quality improvement project focuses on geriatric patients admitted to a substance abuse treatment center. Nursing staff attended a training program that focused on older adults and the use of the Fulmer SPICES tool for patient assessment. There was an increase in nurses' knowledge and in the documentation of assessment findings. Agespecific assessments identify abnormal conditions or geriatric syndromes, which can prompt earlier nursing and medical interventions. Dr. Patrick O'Byrne and his colleague Courtney Jeske examine the process and experiences associated withmethadone maintenance therapy from the perspective of persons who are enrolled in treatment. Participants were engaged in semistructured interviews and described that, althoughmethadonemaintenance therapy can positively affect people who use such a treatment option, it also continues to have a negative impact that repeatedly affects its initiation and delivery. Two graduate students, Kathryn Dalton and Natalie Butt, present their paper on a literature review and meta-analysis to examine whether buprenorphine/naloxone is more effective than buprenorphine and methadone in making a clinical