The opioid epidemic was declared a national public health emergency in 2017. In Georgia, standing orders for the opioid antagonist, naloxone, have been implemented to reduce mortality from opioid overdoses. Service industry workers in the Atlanta, Georgia, inner-city community of Little Five Points (L5P) have access to naloxone, potentially expanding overdose rescue efforts in the community setting. To explore the issues facing L5P, our research brings together qualitative descriptive inquiry, ethnography, community-based research, a community advisory board, and a local artist to maximize community dissemination of research findings through a graphic novel that describes encountering an opioid overdose. This format was chosen due to the ethical responsibility to disseminate in participants’ language and for its potential to empower and educate readers. This article describes the process of working on this study with the community and a local artist to create sample pages that will be tested for clarity of the message in a later phase. Working with an artist has revealed that while dissemination and implementation for collaboration begin before findings are ready, cross-collaboration with the artist requires early engagement, substantial funding, artist education in appropriate content, and member checking to establish community acceptability altering illustrations that reinforce negative stereotypes. By sharing the experiences of actions taken during an opioid overdose in L5P through a graphic novel, we can validate service industry workers’ experiences, acknowledge their efforts to contribute to harm reduction, and provide much-needed closure to those who encounter opioid overdoses in the community.

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Aim This education‐focused study examined changes in nursing students' knowledge and attitudes towards responding to opioid‐involved overdoses following participation in trainings delivered using remote learning modalities. Design This pre‐post study examined learning outcomes among 17 nursing students. Methods Participants completed the Opioid Overdose Attitude Scale and Opioid Overdose Knowledge Scale to assess attitudes and knowledge, respectively. Trainings were delivered to two separate groups, one via virtual reality immersive video and another over video conferencing. Results Attitude scores increased by an average of 12.2 points and knowledge scores increased by 1.65 points. Within the virtual reality group, attitude scores increased by an average of 10 points, while no significant changes were observed in knowledge scores. The video conferencing group improved in both attitude and knowledge scores, by an average of 16.2 points and 2.1 points, respectively. Conclusions These hypothesis generating results illustrate the utility of remote learning approaches to deliver trainings, while maintaining social distance during the ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic.

Black transgender women face nearly universal exposure to violence. Coping behaviors among cisgender women who have survived violence are well delineated; however, there are relatively few studies examining coping strategies for transgender women. The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify and characterize coping behaviors employed by Black transgender women (from Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC metropolitan areas) following an experience of violence. Secondary qualitative data analysis was conducted using framework analysis to explore narratives of 19 Black transgender women.

The opioid epidemic has increasingly been recognized as a public health issue and has challenged our current legal, social, and ethical beliefs regarding drug use. The epidemic not only impacts persons who use drugs, but also those around them, including people who do not expect to witness an overdose. For example, in the commercial district of Little 5 Points, Atlanta, GA, many service industry workers have become de facto responders to opioid overdoses when a person experiences an opioid-involved overdose in their place of employment. To provide additional insights into >300 pages of interview data collected from service industry workers that have responded to an opioid overdose while at work, we utilized a mixed-methods approach to conduct this sentiment analysis. First, using R version 4.2.1, a data-science based textual analytic approach was applied to the interview data. Using a corpus algorithm, each line of interview text was characterized as one of the eight following sentiments, anger, anticipation, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise, or trust. Once having identified statements that fit into each of these eight codes, qualitative thematic analysis was conducted. The three most prevalent emotions elucidated from these interviews with service industry workers were trust, anticipation, and joy with 20.4%, 16.2%, and 14.7% across all statements, respectively labeled as each emotion. Thematic analysis revealed three themes in the data: (1) individuals have a part to address in the opioid epidemic, (2) communities have many needs related to the opioid crisis, and (3) structural forces create pathways and barriers to opioid overdose response and rescue. This analysis thematically identified roles service industry workers have in addressing the opioid crisis in Atlanta. Similarly, community needs and barriers to responding to an opioid-involved overdose were characterized. Uniquely, this study found key sentiments related to each of these themes. Future research can leverage these findings to inform the development of overdose prevention and response interventions for service industry works that systematically address common emotions and beliefs trainees may have.