Inyene Essien-Aleksi, assistant professor in the School of Nursing and Health Sciences, believes nurses are the key to reshaping hospital care for people living with opioid use disorder (OUD).
“Nurses are among the most trusted health care providers,” she explained. “They spend more time with patients than anyone else in the hospital. If you want to transform systems of care, we have to leverage the nursing workforce.”
As a nurse practitioner and researcher, Essien-Aleksi studies health disparities affecting patients with opioid use disorder. Despite strong evidence supporting effective treatments, she said that fewer than 25% percent of patients with OUD who interact with the U.S. healthcare system receive evidence-based treatment.
“We know that combining medications with strong care transitions – linking patients to outpatient resources, building respectful therapeutic relationships with patients during hospitalization, and showing empathy – leads to better outcomes,” she explained.
Stigma surrounding opioid use disorder remains one of the most significant barriers preventing patients from receiving the appropriate treatment they desperately need, Essien-Aleksi said.
“Look at how people with substance use disorders are portrayed in the media,” she said. “Consider how families and communities sometimes respond to addiction and mental health conditions. Health care providers, including nurses, are part of society — they internalize these messages even while receiving formal education on compassionate care. That influences how care is delivered.”
In the past year, Essien-Aleksi has published three studies on the topic. Her most recent research evaluated hospital nurses’ knowledge and attitudes toward patients with OUD.
Our findings showed that nurses with lower knowledge and more negative attitudes were more likely to provide lower-quality care,” she said. “We also identified explicit and implicit bias, system-level barriers, and gaps in confidence related to evidence-based OUD treatment. Together, these findings help us understand what is happening within hospital systems and where change is needed.”
The research was funded through a grant issued by Merrimack’s Strategic Academic Research Trajectory Package (START) program.
“The application process was seamless, and I’m deeply grateful for the support,” Essien-Aleksi said. “The funding allowed me to generate pilot data that will support a career development grant focused on developing scalable solutions to improve care for this vulnerable population.”
She has also collaborated with Merrimack College’s Computational Science and Quantum AI team to explore how data science and advanced analytics can help design scalable interventions to improve patient outcomes.
In March, she will represent the School of Nursing and Health Sciences at the McQuade Library’s annual Tolle Lege event. The Tolle Lege collection catalogs published works by students, faculty, and staff, and the Library holds a conference each year to celebrate its newest additions. In 2025, 108 Warriors published 204 pieces.
“I’m honored to represent my department,” she said. “I’m excited to celebrate the important scholarship happening across the college and to be part of a community committed to advancing knowledge and improving lives.”
