Drug Abuse among Nurses - Essay Example

"Drug Abuse among Nurses" is a great example of a paper on addiction. This paper is aimed at addressing the challenges of drug abuse and the nurse-patient relationship. According to this paper, drug addiction is a critical issue in people of various occupations, levels of education, and socioeconomic classes (Araghian et al., 2017). Clinicians have identified different forms of addictions as a common issue. In a clinical setting, many reported cases of drug dependency are often overlooked by hospital authorities, resulting in rehabilitation efforts failure.

Substances abuse may lead to disabilities, better clinical negligence, deportation, and retiring early among healthcare professionals. Drug dependency reports among nurses arose during the Florence Nightingale age in the mid-nineteenth century. At a specific time in their professional career, ten up to 15 percent of all healthcare workers experience substance abuse. A study has shown that drug abuse is around 10 percent in nurses and the general public.Drug addiction constitutes a severe problem that is likely to break up nursing standards as well as the provision of safe and effective care (Araghian et al., 2017). Nurses with drug abuse issues must be given special attention or support as they could put patients at risk for their health.

This could be affected by the reluctance to report drug addiction problems in treatment centers. Fears of retribution could be a barrier for healthcare practitioners with drug dependency to seek assistance or drug treatment cooperation. Because substance abuse leads to social stigmatization, nearly all medical professionals fail to report such incidences to their respective authorities, according to the systemic observation, as well as the writer's professional experience. Other problems here are the lack of adequate instructions for avoiding drug misuse in rehabilitation centers and also the lack of thorough research on drug dependence in medical personnel and, in particular, nurses.

According to Araghian et al. (2017), national research on the rates of drug abuse amongst healthcare providers and also the influencing factors is needed to be done. Essential strategies for addressing this problem in the clinical environment must also be embraced. Patient care and well-being are the responsibility of the medical personnel. Some of the techniques that could be embraced include the national awareness day, teaching of health professionals, the regular training of hospital managers, and identifying nurses with substance abuse problems.

Nurses have their challenges in life, just like other people, causing most of them to start abusing drugs. Nurses with drug dependence have impaired evaluation, affecting their performance in the workplace. They can be harmful to themselves, patients, or the entire nursing profession. Addiction is a brain condition that changes people's thinking. Registered nurses ( RNs) might not always think that they also have a problem with substance abuse problems. Many assume they're under control until they hit the ground, overdose, or end up dying.

Some healthcare facilities deny that their employees suffer from substance abuse. Managers may tackle the problem behind locked doors and do not disclose the situation. Some impaired nurses are sometimes moved to new jobs without their problems being treated. There is a need to create an environment friendly to these nurses so that they can open up easily and be treated early enough. This strategy could prevent losses in the health facility and improve healthcare.