How often do addiction nurses deal with physical problems?

[satyadhi]

How often do addiction nurses deal with physical problems? I think psych nursing sounds interesting (although I haven't had my psych nursing class yet), but my problem with psych nursing is that you often do not get to deal with physical problems and diseases. As an addiction nurse it seems like you would have to know alot of psych as well as deal with the physical damage caused by drugs and alchohol abuse, am I right?

Is addiction nursing repetitive? Do you feel like you do the same thing every day, compared to other nursing specialties?

Do addictions nurses ever do home health?

If you look at my posts here on allnurses you will see I keep changing where I might want to specialize in or whether or not I have what it takes to be a nurse , but I was wondering if I wanted to work as an NP specializing in psych and addiction would there be any reason for me to get both my Family NP and Psych/mental health NP or would I only need psych? I want to find an area of nursing that requires a combination of physical and psych nursing skills, addiction nursing sounds like it would be a good fit.

I must get some sleep now so I can study for a test on monday

[LisalaRN99, BSN, RN]

My Dear,

I have worked orthopedics, telemetry, and ICU. Prior to nursing, I spent my first career in the mental health field as a mental health case manager, sort of like a social worker. I longed to be a nurse, and at the age of 40 I went to nursing school. My original goal was to be a psych nurse, since I had many role models at the community mental health center I worked at for ten years.

After I graduated, I decided to try my hand at med/surg, just to try out all those skills we had learned in nursing school. My rationale was, that at my age, I could always return to psych nursing when I could no longer physically endure the 12 hr shifts on the floor in a busy hospital.

Since returning to psych nursing, where I now am specialized in addictions treatment, I use many of my "nursing skills". We receive many patients who have diabetes, hypertension, lupus, ulcerative colitis, history of DVTs on Coumadin, develop problems requiring surgeries, develop chest pain, have seizures, etc.

Just yesterday, I completed a complete preoperative workup for a patient having shoulder surgery next week. He injured himself throwing a frisbee, of all things! Also, I received back a patient from outpatient urology surgery after developing severe hematuria with possible bladder tumor.

People with long term addiction problems come in with many medical conditions for which we must stablize and treat. We are "real nurses" not just "baby sitters" for psych patients!

Do please have an open mind about psychiatric/mental health nursing during your psych rotation. At any rate, always remember, people with mental health problems come into general hospitals for child birth, chest pain/heart attacks, auto accidents, and numerous types of emergency or elective surgeries. They are all just regular people who just happen to have another chronic condition that the nurse will have to incorporate into their care plans!

Good luck to you!

[elkpark]

There is a lot of comorbidity in psych and addictions (people who also have serious medical problems). I would be perfectly happy to have a lot fewer medical issues to deal with. :) The old saw that psych nurses don't need (or use) med-surg skills is a serious misconception.

[asun21ta]

Hello there.

I work in a Drug and Alcohol Facility. I can tell you we deal with people who have serious medical conditions all the time. Often, it something that was ignored for so long that it turns into a full blown medical condition. Our most common one is Diabetes. Many addicts do not bother to check their blood sugar or use insulin because they are too pre-occupied with trying to get their "fix". Often, their diabetes are hard to control once they do try. Diabetes is just an example.

Many patients were in serious accidents, the doc wrote them scripts for narcs and now they are addicted to them. Some have serious medical conditions stemming back to a serious accident that got them addicted to drugs in the first place.

Lets just say, D&A nurses will get some med/surg experience depending on what type of facility you work for.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

Good luck figuring out your nursing career. I think you will be very good, whatever you choose.

Always keep in mind that you are dealing with a person who has a body and a mind, and a spiritual dimension, too, (I believe), not just a body or just a mind, and you will do well.

[satyadhi]

Thanks everyone!

I guess I was a bit fearful that if I did psych that I would never use my other med-surg type skills, I'm glad to have that fear proven wrong. There is just so money areas of nursing that interest me, but none like psych and addictions. The nice thing is that some of the other areas of nursing that interest me would work quite well with psych and addictions, such as home health and public/community nursing.

Even though I haven't taken my psych nursing course yet, I guess my nursing background is already in psych. As a kid (technically a teenager, I'm only 22 now anyway) I would spend alot of free time talking to people (mostly younger than me) on the internet who were suicidal or who were abused, cut their wrists etc. Sometimes it was obvious they were just making stuff up about cutting their wrists, but I'm pretty positive most of them were either serious or were at least seriously considering things like suicide, trying to get "comfortable" with the idea. Sometimes I would stay up all night talking to them and mostly listening, and helping them find better ways to cope with their stress, and letting them no that their life was worth something. I think that is one of the biggest influences on making me want to become a nurse.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

People often forget that when patients come in for psychiatric treatment, they don't check their medical problems at the door. When psych patients are hospitalized, we have to deal with the medical issues just as much as we have to deal with their psych issues. There's a lot of med-surg in addicitons nursing due to the nature of the disease of addiction: detox is physiologically as well as psychologically stressful, and there are a lot of medical conditions that stem from drug use...and of course, you also have to deal with the medical issues that didn't develop from their addiction.

Now, while the number of medical issues you encounter may be higher in addiction nursing than in most other psych areas, you will encounter a large number of medical issues in almost any psych area that you go into. But if you really want to deal with comorbidity, try geropsych :)

[drmorton2b]

With Addiction you will see a lot of the disorders (especially in the adult populations) that relate to drug abuse. Hep C, Vein issues that sometimes require Lovenox injections, HIV/STD Issues with male and female clients and of course diabetics.

Rarely basic dressing changes with patients who have wounds from suicide attempts that happened before their admission to the facility and they have been cleared by the ER.

Adults are very needy when going through Detox..

Adolescents tend to be more needy with emotional support and this is where you can use your nursing communication/education skills.

My experience is in stand alone facilities that are not in acute hospitals.