Association between nurses’ knowledge and attitudes and caring behaviors toward people with opioid use disorder

Inyene Edem Essien-Aleksi; Yuan Zhang; Don Roosan; Tracie McPadden; Leslie Rideout; Michael Martin; Paula-Jo Beniers; Amy Lund; Danielle Leone-Sheehan; Alysse Wurcel

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0325874

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Association between nurses’ knowledge and attitudes and caring behaviors toward people with opioid use disorder

Inyene Edem Essien-Aleksi ,

Contributed equally to this work with: Inyene Edem Essien-Aleksi, Yuan Zhang, Don Roosan, Tracie McPadden, Leslie Rideout, Michael Martin, Paula-Jo Beniers, Amy Lund, Danielle Leone-Sheehan, Alysse Wurcel

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: essienaleksi@merrimack.edu

Affiliation School of Nursing and Health Sciences, Merrimack College, North Andover, Massachusetts, United States of America

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0943-9952

⨯
Yuan Zhang ,

Contributed equally to this work with: Inyene Edem Essien-Aleksi, Yuan Zhang, Don Roosan, Tracie McPadden, Leslie Rideout, Michael Martin, Paula-Jo Beniers, Amy Lund, Danielle Leone-Sheehan, Alysse Wurcel

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Solomont School of Nursing, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, Massachusetts, United States of America
⨯
Don Roosan ,

Contributed equally to this work with: Inyene Edem Essien-Aleksi, Yuan Zhang, Don Roosan, Tracie McPadden, Leslie Rideout, Michael Martin, Paula-Jo Beniers, Amy Lund, Danielle Leone-Sheehan, Alysse Wurcel

Roles Writing – review & editing

Affiliation School of Engineering and Computational Science, Merrimack College, North Andover, Massachusetts, United States of America
⨯
Tracie McPadden ,

Contributed equally to this work with: Inyene Edem Essien-Aleksi, Yuan Zhang, Don Roosan, Tracie McPadden, Leslie Rideout, Michael Martin, Paula-Jo Beniers, Amy Lund, Danielle Leone-Sheehan, Alysse Wurcel

Roles Project administration

Affiliation Lowel General Hospital, Lowell, Massachusetts, United States of America
⨯
Leslie Rideout ,

Contributed equally to this work with: Inyene Edem Essien-Aleksi, Yuan Zhang, Don Roosan, Tracie McPadden, Leslie Rideout, Michael Martin, Paula-Jo Beniers, Amy Lund, Danielle Leone-Sheehan, Alysse Wurcel

Roles Project administration, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Tufts Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
⨯
Michael Martin ,

Contributed equally to this work with: Inyene Edem Essien-Aleksi, Yuan Zhang, Don Roosan, Tracie McPadden, Leslie Rideout, Michael Martin, Paula-Jo Beniers, Amy Lund, Danielle Leone-Sheehan, Alysse Wurcel

Roles Project administration

Affiliation Tufts Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

https://orcid.org/0009-0006-9157-3083

⨯
Paula-Jo Beniers ,

Contributed equally to this work with: Inyene Edem Essien-Aleksi, Yuan Zhang, Don Roosan, Tracie McPadden, Leslie Rideout, Michael Martin, Paula-Jo Beniers, Amy Lund, Danielle Leone-Sheehan, Alysse Wurcel

Roles Project administration

Affiliation Tufts Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7600-2275

⨯
Amy Lund ,

Contributed equally to this work with: Inyene Edem Essien-Aleksi, Yuan Zhang, Don Roosan, Tracie McPadden, Leslie Rideout, Michael Martin, Paula-Jo Beniers, Amy Lund, Danielle Leone-Sheehan, Alysse Wurcel

Roles Project administration

Affiliation Tufts Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
⨯
Danielle Leone-Sheehan ,

Contributed equally to this work with: Inyene Edem Essien-Aleksi, Yuan Zhang, Don Roosan, Tracie McPadden, Leslie Rideout, Michael Martin, Paula-Jo Beniers, Amy Lund, Danielle Leone-Sheehan, Alysse Wurcel

Roles Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
⨯
Alysse Wurcel

Contributed equally to this work with: Inyene Edem Essien-Aleksi, Yuan Zhang, Don Roosan, Tracie McPadden, Leslie Rideout, Michael Martin, Paula-Jo Beniers, Amy Lund, Danielle Leone-Sheehan, Alysse Wurcel

Roles Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
⨯

Association between nurses’ knowledge and attitudes and caring behaviors toward people with opioid use disorder

Inyene Edem Essien-Aleksi,
Yuan Zhang,
Don Roosan,
Tracie McPadden,
Leslie Rideout,
Michael Martin,
Paula-Jo Beniers,
Amy Lund,
Danielle Leone-Sheehan,
Alysse Wurcel

Published: March 12, 2026
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0325874

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