How to Deal With Substance Abuse in the Nursing Field

In 1984 the American Nurses Association publicly acknowledged substance abuse in the nursing industry. According to the Mayo Clinic, 19.5 million people over the age of 12 use illegal drugs in the United States. Although statistics vary, it is estimated that at any given time approximately 10 percent of healthcare professionals are guilty of substance abuse. Substance abuse among nurses has the potential to harm patients, damage employers' credibility and of course, hurt the nurses themselves.

Instructions

• 1

  Encourage early detection. Medical institutions that employ nurses need to take a proactive approach to identify resources and establish programs to detect and prevent substance abuse in their facilities. These committees should meet monthly to develop educational programs, identify impaired behavior and symptoms in employees, and establish work procedures to follow to intervene where needed.

• 2

  Establish strict control of drug handling. Procedures should be developed to secure and track the dispensing of all narcotic drugs and to investigate any discrepancies that may occur. Managers of narcotic dispensing departments should periodically monitor narcotic distribution by department, shift and individual employee to help identify suspicious patterns.

• 3

  Make support groups available for those who are at risk of substance abuse. Nurses who are highly stressed, have emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression, have financial problems or have experienced trauma all have the potential to abuse drugs. Medical organizations can prevent drug abuse by offering counseling, life skills, and exercise programs to nurses to alleviate these conditions. Peer support groups are especially effective, since nurses are trained to look for warning signs of drug abuse and may identify symptoms among their peers.

• 4

  Inform nurses of their legal rights regarding drug abuse. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibits discrimination against disabled persons in the workplace. Drug and alcohol dependency can be considered a disability if an addicted nurse is no longer actively using the drugs. This allows the addicted nurse to receive treatment but still retain her job with reasonable accommodations similar to people with other disabilities.

• 5

  Establish disciplinary actions or alternative-to-disciplinary actions for substance abusers. These can involve treatment programs as well as legal action. Vanderbilt University School of Nursing researchers Todd Monroe, Ph.D., and Heidi Kenaga, Ph.D., found that alternative-to-discipline programs helped nurses recover from addiction and returned them to the workforce more quickly than when legal actions were used. Alternative-to-discipline programs are safer for patients, as nurses who are abusing drugs are removed immediately from work, while legal attempts at removal can take much longer.