New Hampshire Code of Administrative Rules
Nur - Board of Nursing (Formerly the Board of Nursing Education and Nurse Registration)
Chapter Nur 500 - ETHICAL STANDARDS
Part Nur 502 - OPIOID PRESCRIBING
Section Nur 502.03 - Definitions

(a) "Acute pain" means the normal, predicted physiological response to a noxious chemical, thermal, or mechanical stimulus and typically is associated with invasive procedures, trauma, and disease. It can be generally time-limited, often less than 3 months in duration;

(b) "Administer" means an act whereby a single dose of a drug is instilled into the body of, applied to the body of, or otherwise given to a person for immediate consumption or use;

(c) "Addiction" means a primary, chronic, neuro-biologic disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. It is characterized by behaviors that include impaired control over drug use, craving, compulsive use, or continued use despite harm. The term does not include physical dependence and tolerance, which are normal physiological consequences of extended opioid therapy for pain;

(d) "Chronic pain" means a state in which non-cancer pain persists beyond the usual course of an acute disease or healing of an injury, or that may or might not be associated with an acute or chronic pathologic process that causes continuous or intermittent pain over months or years. It also includes intermittent episodic pain that may require periodic treatment. For the purposes of these rules, chronic pain does not include pain from cancer or terminal disease;

(e) "Clinical coverage" means specified and prearranged coverage that is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to assist in the management of patients with chronic pain;

(f) "Dose unit" means one pill, one capsule, one patch, or one liquid dose;

(g) "Medication-assisted treatment" means any treatment of opioid addiction that includes a medication, such as methadone, buprenorphine, or naltrexone, that is approved by the FDA for opioid detoxification or maintenance treatment;

(h) "Morphine equivalent dose (MED)" means a conversion of various opioids to a morphine equivalent dose by the use of board-approved conversion tables;

(i) "Prescription" means a verbal, written, facsimile, or electronically transmitted order for medications for self-administration by an individual patient;

(j) "Risk assessment" means a process for predicting a patient's likelihood of misusing or abusing opioids in order to develop and document a level of monitoring for that patient;

(k) "Treatment agreement" means a written agreement that outlines the joint responsibilities of Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) and patient; and

(l) "Treatment plan" means a written plan that reflects the particular benefits and risks of opioid use for each individual patient and establishes goals, expectations, methods, and time course for treatment.