There are several reasons why nurses are at higher risk of developing a drug addiction, which means that there is a high chance for practitioners to work in unit with nurses who illegally use drugs. Firstly, the stressful nature of nurses’ work contributes to the development of compassion fatigue, which can result in self-harming behavior such as substance use (Jarrad et al., 2018). Next, easy access to medications exposes all healthcare workers to the tendency of substance misuse for self-medication purposes (Mohanty et al., 2019). Furthermore, a significant part of nurses is presented by women, and psychological stress is commonly associated as the predictor of opioid use among women (Zakiniaeiz & Potenza, 2018). Thus, it will be my professional obligation to disclose the information to management because an impaired nurse presents a threat to patients’ safety. Furthermore, my institutional obligation will be to disclose the information and direct them to special treatment programs for impaired nurses.
The Intervention Project for Nurses is the only program available for the treatment of impaired nurses in Florida. The program prioritizes providing nurses with necessary resources such as support groups and allows a consecutive process of nurse’s re-entry through monitoring to prevent the reoccurrence of substance misuse. Next, considering the unique pattern of nurses’ addiction to illegal drug use, advanced nursing practitioners need to acknowledge the issue’s significance and the frequency of such cases. Furthermore, it is important for the practitioner’s role as an educator to inform others about the reasons behind nurses’ illegal drug use to prevent such cases. Lastly, raising healthcare workers’ awareness about the issue and available treatment programs will facilitate the process of nurses’ confession to drug use.
References
Jarrad, R., Hammad, S., Shawashi, T., & Mahmoud, T. (2018). Compassion fatigue and substance use among nurses. Annals of General Psychiatry, 17, 1-8. Web.
Mohanty, A., Ankita, K., & Mohanty, A. P. (2019). Health problems in healthcare workers: A review. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, 8(8), 2568-2572. Web.
Zakiniaeiz, Y., & Potenza, M. N. (2018). Gender-related differences in addiction: A review of human studies. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 23, 171-175. Web.