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WCU professor works on opioid series

Tamera Pearson (center) of WCU’s School of Nursing reviews a script with family nurse practitioner Jennifer Lewis during filming for a video series related to the opioid epidemic, while filmmaker Rod Murphy looks on. Tamera Pearson (center) of WCU’s School of Nursing reviews a script with family nurse practitioner Jennifer Lewis during filming for a video series related to the opioid epidemic, while filmmaker Rod Murphy looks on.

A professor in Western Carolina University’s School of Nursing is teaming up with an award-winning documentary filmmaker to produce a video series related to the opioid epidemic that will enhance classroom instruction for the university’s nurse practitioner students and assist primary care health providers across the region.

WCU’s Tamera Pearson is working with Rod Murphy of Asheville to address some of the challenges involved in providing health care to individuals against the backdrop of the opioid crisis. Filming on the three-part series began the weekend of April 13-14 at WCU’s Biltmore Park site with experts on the topic, actors and scripts aimed at bringing the epidemic to life.

“Our hope is that these videos will add a new perspective and layer of content for training not only for the WCU students but for other primary care providers concerning the important pain management issues that they face in practice every day,” Pearson said. 

The videos will be ready for viewing by late June and will be distributed at WCU and to the Mountain Area Health Education Center, also known as MAHEC, for use in training programs.