CRNA Drug Addiction

Its interesting that some people think that signing out narcotics is in anyway going to prevent someone from diverting drugs! The "paper trail" is one of the last clues to alert anyone to the problem.
Certain people are going to be more at risk: someone with a parent with a substance abuse (including alcohol) problem is at greater risk. Also think about it, we are control freaks, we use drugs to control every aspect of our patients, why not use it to make ourselves feel better?
I've known 2 anesthesia providers and 2 perioperative nurses who started putting drugs in their veins, and at least 1 of them are dead.

It is incredibly naive to think that any amount of paperwork, cosigning of wastages, return of PCA/epideral tubing etc. will prevent drug abuse. If healthcare workers want to get a hold of drugs, they will find a way. Just like the general public.

I was chatting with an Anesthesia Tech. from accross the globe who got addicted to one of the gases used. I do not know which one it was (it was not NO2 because he said it was one of the ones used to put toe patient to sleep). I chatted with him before and after his addiction. What triggered the addiction were personal problems which prevented him from getting sleep at night. I to this day do not undertand how he snuck the bottle home and had all the necessary equipment to put himself to sleep with that stuff. Anyway, he got caught when a family member tried to get into contact with him while he was "out" at home. They went to his house to check on him and found him "asleep" in his room with the mask to his side. He was rushed to the ER at the very same hospital where he worked. He got treatment for the addiction and became a Born-Again Christian afterwards. I do not remember if he was ever able to get back in Anesthesiaology. We just stopped talking for some reason.

Hope my $0.02 is worth something here lol.

Nick

The reason CRNA's have a higher incidence of drug abuse more than any other group of health care providers boils down to one thing and that is access to the drugs. It is extremely easy to write in the anesthesia record that 7cc of fentanyl were given when really only five were given. Or to draw up saline and waste that at the end of the case instead of the fentanyl. CRNA's that are stealing drugs almost always get caught by a behavior change from being on the drug, not because there are errors in the tracking of the drugs. I know of one CRNA that made others suspicious when he fell asleep during a case. Those are the sorts of things that get people wondering about you.

Does anyone know if most CRNA's that are addicted were addicted prior to CRNA school? In my program we have several students who continually try and work throughout the program and was wondering if that is indicative in any way.

What on earth is wrong with working? How is that indicative of an addiction disorder? Not everyone can afford to stop working and just go to school.

If you have some time and really want to educate yourself about CRNA's and addition, start at AANA.com and then click on peer assistance. There's practically a library there.

I'm not sure that the addiction rate is higher for CRNA's. I've worked for many years in many OR's and have heard of a many anesthesiologists, OR RN's & Techs, PACU RN's, EMT's and med/surg/re-hab/LTC RN's but NEVER a CRNA. Perhaps the numbers are so small that it doesn't take many to skew the percentage rate.

In a recent lecture by a peer assistance counseler from AANA, we were told the rate of crna drug abuse was proportional to the country. Does anyone know if this is true? I assumed yes, but have never read anything.....

And to open up another topic, what do you all think about recovered addicts returning to practice? I have a strong opinion on that, always just thinking "what if my mother was the patient" type of approach, what do you guys think?

You could contact Dr. Bernadette Roche the Director at the ENH school of anestheisa. She has published extensively and made films of MDA and CRNA addiction. I sure she could answer your questions with the latest facts and figures
Qanik
BROCHE@enh.org