Substance Abuse In Nursing Essay

1944 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Paper on substance abuse among nurses

Substance Abuse in Nursing
Hunter Harris, Story Hogeland, Bonita HuiHui, Amanda Livingston, and Kristy Livingston
University of North Alabama

Substance Abuse in Nursing
Substance abuse in the medical field is a growing issue, and nurses are no exception to the stigma. The American Nurses Association (ANA) reports an estimated six to eight percent of nurses has a substance abuse issue that has directly impaired their practice (Alunni-Kinkle, 2015). This means that as many as one in every ten nurses is practicing with an unidentified or untreated substance abuse issue (Alunni-Kinkle, 2015). This paper will briefly discuss the many factors that contribute to substance abuse among nurses, as well as reporting and consequences associated with …show more content…

After a long while of looking at small tools and a lack of sleep, a nurse’s eyes can be weary, just like anyone else. Nurses need rest just as much, if not more than, the rest of the general population. There are only twenty four hours in a day and if one works for a twelve hour shift it does not leave much room to enjoy family or have a social life. Because of this, nurses are often sleep deprived and they find alternative sources of escape. Some of the so called sources or coping mechanisms are medicinal. Nurses have a good knowledge of medications and their side effects, so one might think they would be confident in taking drugs they provide their patients on a regular basis; however, many nurses use that knowledge to abuse these medications. They may take some from work instead of giving their patients their full dose and may overdose on those drugs to escape the stresses of daily …show more content…

The consequences of substance abuse as a practicing nurse are endless. According to the Alabama Board of Nursing Administrative Code, the Board will take disciplinary action toward a nurse who is proven to be negligent from the use of alcohol or has been proven to be addicted to any habit-forming drug (2017). Either of these criteria render the nurse unsafe and or unreliable to practice as a nurse (Alabama Board of Nursing, 2017). Depending on the extent of the offense, the Board may discipline the transgressor in several ways including reprimand, fine, and suspending or revoking their license (Alabama Board of Nursing, 2017). Any nurse facing these charges also must endure the embarrassment of having their name permanently put on the Disciplinary Action Reports page of the Alabama Board of Nursing website for all of the public to review (Alabama Board of Nursing, 2017). Thus, if said nurse loses his or her job in the process, future employers will access this database for hires, leaving the nurse to be scrutinized by any possible employer. Not only do nurses risk their own credibility, they also risk the lives of their patients when under the influence. A study recorded by Cares shows that substance abuse rates were highest among nurses working in specialty fields (2016). The nurses working in the fields such as adult critical care and

Show More
Related

  • Barbara Ehrenreich 's Nickel And Dimed

    1158 Words  | 3 Pages

    Prescription and pharmaceutical drug abuse is beginning to expand as a social issue within the United States because of the variety of drugs, their growing availability, and the social acceptance and peer pressure to uses them. Many in the workforce are suffering and failing at getting better due to the desperation driving their addiction.

    Read More

  • Peer Assistance Programs for Nurses

    1490 Words  | 3 Pages

    Substance abuse among health care professionals is an issue that is continually gaining more attention due to the harmful affects it can have individuals as well as the patients. Substance abuse can greatly hinder the ability to provide quality care and if left unchecked could lead to serious implications within the health care facility. There are a significant amount of nurses and health care providers that deal with substance abuse problems. At one point, it was estimated, that 2-3%, of all nurses were addicted to drugs (Trinkoff, & Storr, 1998). To encourage nurses to seek help, the Texas Peer Assistance Program for Nurses was created. This program gives employers, LVNs and RNs the ability to seek help, education, guidance, and support in dealing with substance abuse and mental health illnesses. In this paper, we will examine the ethical perspectives that these programs foster and the ethical responsibilities of the patient, nurse, and coworkers as determined by the Texas Board of Nursing and the Nurse Practice Acts.

    Read More

  • Nursing Model Research Paper

    6745 Words  | 14 Pages

    No matter where care is being provided the nurses foremost concern should be the patient. Work with patients should be holistic in nature such all aspects of their person are provided appropriate care (e.g. nursing, counseling and spiritual). The problem excessive alcohol use in an older, chronically ailing population results in a situation where nurses must continue to learn about and apply best practices, to strive for better outcomes with these patients and, if truly passionate/ learned enough about this topic assist them outside the hospital as

    Read More

  • Taking a Look at Nurse Fatigue

    1665 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the recent past, nursing has come to the forefront as a popular career amongst students across the globe. The demand for nurses has kept increasing gradually over the years. In fact, the number of registered nurses does not meet the demand of the private and public health sector. This phenomenon has resulted in a situation where the available registered nurses have to work extra hours in order to meet the patients’ needs. With this in mind, the issue of nurse fatigue has come up as a common problem in nursing. According to the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA), nurse fatigue is “a feeling of tiredness” that penetrates a persons physical, mental and emotional realms limiting their ability to function normally. Fatigue does not just involve sleepiness as has been assumed before. It involves utter exhaustion that is not easily mitigated through rest. When nurses ignore the signs of fatigue, they risk the development of chronic fatigue and other health problems that may not be easily treated. Additionally, fatigue may cause nurses to lose more time at work as they may have to be away from work for several days to treat it. The issue of nurse fatigue has permeated the nursing profession to the extent of causing errors in the work performed by nurses. Fatigue causes a decrease in a nurse’s ability to make accurate decisions for themselves and their patients. It is therefore important to find ways to curb nurse fatigue such that it is no longer a problem. Nurse fatigue is a danger to the patients, organizations and to the nurses themselves and must be mitigated adequately.

    Read More

  • Substance Abuse Among Nurses

    916 Words  | 2 Pages

    Over the years, substance abuse in the United States has become a persistent issue affecting many individuals. In 2008, it was estimated that 17.8 million Americans over the age of 18 where substance dependent (Epstein, Burns, & Conlon, 2010). Many of these individuals being affected are nurses. Ponech (2000) stated that "approximately 10% of the nursing population has alcohol or drug abuse problems, and 6% has problems serious enough to interfere with their ability to practice" (as cited in Talbert, 2009, p.17). Studies show that nurses have a 50% higher rate of substance abuse compared to the rest of the public (Epstein et al., 2010). Among the many factors that contribute to the nurse’s issue of substance abuse, accessibility to drugs in the work environment has played a significant role. Substance abuse among nurses is an arising issue in need of attention, it is alarming to know that patient safety and care is in danger when a chemically impaired nurse is in the workplace.

    Read More

  • Sleep Deprivation In Hospital

    680 Words  | 2 Pages

    This article has shown me that new strategies are needed to reduce sleep disturbances, improve sleep quality, and support the need for supplemental daytime sleep in hospitalized individuals. These strategies include monitoring patients’ sleep and assess quality of sleep and duration, resolving the problems of sleep disturbance, recognizing that nighttime noise, light, and other factors potentially interfere with patient sleep, minimize lighting in shared patient rooms and turn off lights earlier at night, frequently assess for pain and administer prescribed pain medications to minimize sleep disruption. This article taught me more about sleep cycles and disturbances in hospitalized patients. As a future nurse, I have to accurately assess the patients’ personal characteristics and health education needs, and share this knowledge with my classmates.

    Read More

  • Importance Of Overtime In Nursing

    1040 Words  | 3 Pages

    About 32% of RNs worked on-call hours (either paid or unpaid). When we consider all types of overtime, 60.1% of RNs worked at least one type of overtime among mandatory, voluntary, and on-call. About 16% of nurses actually worked more than 40 hours in a typical week. Among nurse injuries, verbal abuse (56.6%) and bruises or contusions (49.7%) are the two most frequently experienced nurse injuries. In total, 79.2% of nurses experienced one of these injuries during the past month. In regards to adverse patient events, medication errors (44.5%) and patient falls (38.2%) are the most frequently reported adverse patient events by nurses. Sixty-one percent of nurses perceived that patients in their unit experienced one of these adverse events during their hospital stay (Bae,

    Read More

  • Nursing Profession In Nursing

    1309 Words  | 3 Pages

    The major concern for registered nurses regard’s the nurse’s health and well being. Safe staffing levels are continuing to become more of a problem. The U.S is expected to experience a shortage of nurses as the “Baby Boomers” age and the need for health care grows (Rossester, 2014). This shortage is causing some health organizations to work with minimal amounts of nurses. This is affecting the nurse’s ability to provide safe care due to fatigue and injury. This shortage is also resulting in a dramatic increase in the amount of mandatory overtime, which often means that nurses stray from face-to-face patient care and can produce an increase in the amount of medical errors (American Nurses Association,

    Read More

  • Effects Essay: The Causes And Effects Of Substance Abuse

    1789 Words  | 4 Pages

    Substance abuse is not a subject to be taken lightly. It is classified as the overconsumption

    Read More

  • The Ethical Issues Of Staffing Shortage In Nursing

    600 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nurses want to give complete and quality care, but are unable to, due to the constant needs of their workload and inadequate staffing. They have to prioritize their patients needs based on the most critical treatments first. Then whatever time is left, they fill in what treatments they can. Some reasons that nursing treatments are missed include: too few staff, time required for the nursing intervention, poor use of existing staff resources and ineffective delegation.” (Kalisch, 2006) Many nurses become emotionally stressed and unsatisfied with their jobs. (Halm et al., 2005; Kalisch,

    Read More

  • Substance Abuse Proposal Essay

    585 Words  | 2 Pages

    Substance abuse can have tremendous impact on teenagers’ physical health since most substances will cause strain on the organs, hormone imbalance, cancer caused by nicotine or steroid use. Also, substance abuse include mental health conditions such as anxiety, memory loss, and aggression. And their academic education will be affected too, by their addictive behavior which can lead them of not being responsible with their schools assignment.

    Read More

  • Substance Abuse Social Problem Essay

    1792 Words  | 4 Pages

    Substance abuse is an issue that plays a major social problem in society, the effect of drugs on families and communities is destructive. This paper will discuss evidence showing how substance abuse is a specific social problem that is widespread, and is affecting every level of our judicial system. Many people turn to drugs for many different reasons, they will try just about anything to relieve the pain. In our society today many people go through devastating experiences in their life. Furthermore people turn to drugs to mask the horrible memories and find relief. Drugs can temporarily relieve the symptoms of angry, loneliness or boredom, but it may be a temporary fix to an individual problems. They may

    Read More

  • Essay About Alcohol Abuse

    782 Words  | 2 Pages

    The problem of alcohol use is very relevant nowadays. Today alcohol consumption characterized by vast numbers in the world. All of society is suffering from this, but primarily jeopardized the younger generation: children, teenagers, young people, and the health of future mothers. Because alcohol is particularly active effect on the body that are not formed, gradually destroying it. The harm of alcohol abuse is evident. It is proved that when alcohol is ingested inside the body, it is carried by blood to all organs and has harmful effect on them until destruction. Systematic use of alcohol develops a dangerous disease such as alcoholism. Alcoholism is dangerous to human health, but it is curable as other diseases. The big problem is that most of the alcohol products which are made in private places contain many toxic substances, defective products often leads to poisoning and even death. All this has negative impact on society and its cultural values.

    Read More

  • Is Nursing An Art Or A Science

    1504 Words  | 4 Pages

    Firstly, nurses are expected to practice evidence-based health care hence a mastery of information about the essential and safe dose of drugs for a patient is very important for a nurse. Consequently, it could be the determinant between the life and the death of the patient. Pharmacology is a discipline which is mandatory for the nurse to excel in to be efficient in discharging his/her duties. Understanding which drug to use, the right dosage, the expected side effects which may occur and the contra-indications of the various drugs are key in the preservation of

    Read More

  • An Essay About Drug Addiction

    1114 Words  | 3 Pages

    Drug addiction is a very big problem in today’s society. Many people have had their lives ruined due to drug addiction. The people that use the drugs don’t even realize that they have an addiction. They continue to use the drug not even realizing that their whole world is crashing down around them. Drug addicts normally lose their family and friends due to drug addiction.

    Read More

More about Substance Abuse In Nursing Essay

Open Document