I see that this catagory has been slow moving lately and I wanted to start a new thread with a different direction. I would like to get everyone's opinion (even the people that have never suffered with addiction). What do you think about your state's peer assistance/recovery program? Do you think it is too harsh or not harsh enough? What state are you in, and do you know the rules or guidelines of your states recovering nurses program?
I just want to get a general view of nurses' education on the matter. I have noticed lately in my hospital that the nurses do not know that there is a recovery program out there. They don't know that there are options and many are scared to report someone, especially if it is their friend. They are scared to report themselves if they need help.
I know that there are more impaired nurses out there than any of us want to admit. I think that if we were educated more on the matter, we could get a better grasp on the situation.
That's more important than any list of statistics! Unfortunately, our "learned" colleagues with the tons of letters behind their names don't seem to think experience means anything anymore. Give me an experienced nurse to care for me or my loved ones any day! :up:
Speaking of experience...I celebrate 14 years at midnight tonight! :)
Specializes in Impaired Nurse Advocate, CRNA, ER,.
My response to Jacks' posts here is a loud resounding-- THANK YOU MAN--!!! You don't know how much I wish you could travel to CT. and share your wealth of intelligence,insight,experience and compassion with the sorry lot of ignorant health professionals that reside and "work" here. "Denial" truly is the first and single most important symptom of not only the disease of substance dependence/addiction, but also that of the huge narrow-mindedness in our society. To call this a sad and wasteful state of affairs would be a major understatement. I,too, as a previous poster said, that your enlightened words are extremely book worthy. Thanks, also Jack, for your response to a post of mine,"New job woes". I continue to go to great lengths to give the new position my full attention and energy, just as I do for my Recovery....
I would be more than happy to speak anywhere-anytime!! I'd much rather speak than write, that's for sure. If I'm not mistaken, doesn't CT have a new alternative program for nurses? I just finished reading a book written by a nurse from CT called "Walk Like a Duck" in which she tells her story about dealing with her addiction and the crap she went through to get her license back. I just had an email exchange with her and I thought for sure she said CT now has a program. With all the brain cells I've fried I could be mistaken.
As a side note: I was interviewed for an article in the next issue of RN Magazine (April's issue) along with Patty H. (who wrote the book). We were interviewed about the importance of alternative programs and how not having alternatives to discipline actually harms recovering nurses since they won't seek help or lose their license, income, benefits, etc. And we ALL know how helpful punishing people with a disease is so much more helpful than actually getting them treatment as early as possible!
You know,, I have been an advocate for TPAPN for a while now, and I noticed from the very beginning that hospitals are not only ignorant to addiction, but they're blind to the process of TPAPN and the fact that there is assistance out there for nurses AND hospitals/facilities.
I teach a one hour CEU credit class for TPAPN. I explain everything concerning TPAPN and even go into signs and symptoms of the disease. The job I just quit (haha I just had to say that, I'm so happy I quit that job)... management there were soooo lost when we had an issue.. We had an intervention on the weekend. One manager in fact told us he'd deal with it on Monday. All the while the nurse continued to work, *HIGH AS A KITE*, friday, saturday and sunday.. finally about noon on sunday my charge nurse called a different manager and we got her off the floor. By the way, this was my first second and third day to work there, it should have been an indication as to how management runs the place.
But I just had to give the place the benefit of the doubt. Ya know, surely it cannot be this amiss. Maybe it was just one lousy manager. NOT. So, I no longer work there. And I am delighted about this. :)
I digress. Anyway, most hospitals, including management and nursing staff have no clue what peer assistance is, let alone how it assists the recovering nurse. I just wish that states would make a mandatory CEU to educate everyone on their state's peer assistance program and the disease of addiction and other psychological diagnosis that affect nursing practice.
If I hadn't been there that weekend,, my first three days to work there,, there is no telling what might have happened to that nurse. She's lucky that she didn't pass out and stop breathing. She had taken THAT much narcotics. Shooting up in the bathroom., and was begging to get caught. Later, telling me that she wished she knew about TPAPN before getting caught, she may have self referred. Knowing that she needed help, she just didn't know how to get it. And she also thought her career would be over, admitting all this to me later on. If I hadn't been there, the other nurses would never had said anything. Hell, they had been working with her like that for MONTHS. Several of the patients in that hall had gotten RX for that certain IV drug that she liked. And they didn't even need anything that strong. I wonder how they got that script? From this same nurse.
One patient that this nurse had was zonked out.. I mean lethargic to all get out. So, we all thought she was just getting too much of this narcotic iv injection. Well, come to find out, after said nurse left,, we stopped the PRN IV narcotic. And the patient didn't wake up. Three days later she's still asleep, so the nurses and docs dig deeper. Come to find out, she is in digoxin toxicity. We would have continued to think she was asleep because of a narcotic,, even though she wasn't. The patient was digoxin toxic. She would have died if we didn't catch that nurse. THe nurse was taking the IV PRN narcotic and documenting that she was giving it to the patient every two hours. This nurse had three patients with this drug ordered every two hours. She was getting massive doses, and no one knew it... Until I came along and noticed little things here and little things there,, and they all added up.
After I noticed these little things, I logged into the med despence and I knew she was taking the drug as soon as I seen her name log out the med fifteen minutes before the shift started and then every thirty minutes ALL DAY LONG she was getting this drug out of the machine. This went on for months, and no one knew.
Who is to blame for this? Society? Maybe. After all, as jack says, and we all know,,, the stigma to the disease of addiction is strong. People don't want to accept addiction as a disease. They already KNOW, or think they KNOW that it's vicious. And they think we can control ourselves, and that we WANT to be drug addicts because we did it to ourselves right? Shame on the crack head, shame on the alcoholic, shame on the pill addict.. they did it to themselves and they should SUFFER. Right?
Well, yes, we do suffer. We suffer everyday. Less and less as recovery continues. But still it's suffering just the same. You can never get over addiction. It waits for you,,, it waits for you to turn your attention to something else.. it waits for you to get stressed out,, it waits for you to be unhappy,, and then it jumps on you like a leach. Like a big science fiction leach from another world,, immense, black, slimy, glutinous, fleshy leach sucking on the back of your head, the back of your neck,, and it sucks the life out of you. It sucks out your personality, your reason for living, and it sucks out your soul.
That is, unless you are strong enough to pry it off of you... burn it off with counseling, meetings, support from your friends and your peers. I believe that support from your family and peers is most detrimental to recovery. Without this, it would be immensely hard to succeed.
There are so many reasons we need to educate the public and our healthcare professionals about addiction. But, I believe the very most important reason is for support. Recovering addicts need support. How can anyone support our recovery if they don't understand addiction as a disease?
Who is to blame for this? The larger answer to this I don't know but a known addict allowed to come to work is OUR fault. We are making tiny little baby-steps forward in this field, but the majority of nurses choose to remain ignorant about substance abuse. Yes, I use the accusatory work CHOOSE. But I do appreciate the denial mechanism encased in everyone and the particular dysfunction personalities of many who choose nursing. Part of the problem is that the intellectual and emotional learning curve can be long and steep. One way to get the educational ball spinning is to have a recovery topic every day on the opening page of Allnurses - assuming that someone who hasn't been exposed to the topic might click on that day and that person can spread to word to another person. The only way a movement can begin. BUT so many people CHOOSE to remain ignorant. Having this website is a terrific service to our profession.
Specializes in Impaired Nurse Advocate, CRNA, ER,.
Gee Mag...why don't you just tell us how you really feel?
Actually.....WELL SAID!!! The sad thing is, many, many nurses will read your post and just blow it off as the rantings of an.....addict.
I like your description of addiction
Like a big science fiction leech from another world,, immense, black, slimy, glutinous, fleshy leech sucking on the back of your head, the back of your neck,, and it sucks the life out of you. It sucks out your personality, your reason for living, and it sucks out your soul.
And while it's doing this, it sends out smaller versions to do the same thing to family, friends and colleagues. It destroys families, not just the addict.
And Su...you are absolutely correct about the WILLFUL IGNORANCE about this disease. It's difficult to watch someone with barely a high school education who doesn't understand this disease. It's understandable why they don't "get it". But to watch and listen to supposedly educated health care "professionals", many with "advanced" degrees, spout some of the "oil of vitriol" [concentrated sulfuric acid] I've seen on this web site, and heard at board of nursing meetings is beyond acceptable. I call people on this kind of hate speech just like I do when I hear someone use the "N" word or make a comment about a patient's personal life.
This isn't a popular position, but I believe much of the reason for the continued ignorance about addiction and recovery is because nurses (and recovering people in general) don't talk about their struggles with this disease. They don't share their successes found as a result of successfully facing this "huge, black, slimy, fleshy, gluttonous" disease, going through treatment, and the things they do on a daily basis to remain clean and sober. I can truly say it has been an extremely liberating experience to tell my story,whether at church, at schools, at seminars and national meetings, with new friends and aquaintances. For me, NOT telling my story is difficult (in the proper situation...which happens to be WHENEVER and WHEREVER the topic comes up). If we want to see this disease defeated, silence can no longer be an option. That's why it's so encouraging to see organizations like Faces and Voices of Recovery, Nurses In Recovery, Anesthetists In Recovery, and other taking a more public stance on this disease in it's members and in society. Can you imagine anyone turning down the opportunity to educate about HIV, AIDS, breast cancer, and other chronic, progressive fatal diseases? My goodness, the angry backlash would be astounding. But it's OK to ignore this disease, this NUMBER ONE PUBLIC HEALTH problem, because of what I call the "3 M's" of addiction...Myth, Misbelief, and Misunderstanding".
If we keep talking about it, even when people find it uncomfortable, things WILL change. But it is WE who have to have the courage to bring this message to our colleagues, even when they don't like it. ESPECIALLY when they don't like it.
Specializes in Impaired Nurse Advocate, CRNA, ER,.
Here's an excellent thought about ignoring your critics...which we, as recovering individualshttp://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/03/ignore-your-critics.html
Gee Mag...why don't you just tell us how you really feel?
Actually.....WELL SAID!!! The sad thing is, many, many nurses will read your post and just blow it off as the rantings of an.....addict.
I like your description of addiction
And while it's doing this, it sends out smaller versions to do the same thing to family, friends and colleagues. It destroys families, not just the addict.
This is what comes off of my fingertips when I'm awake before 6am on my day off. For no reason. With no alarm clock. Just because.
I like the smaller version thing,, that's sooo true too. The people that we love and that love us have seen us through hell and back, and they still love us. That's something.
Okay, I've used all my brain power for the day, it's up to ya'll now. lol :zzzzz
PS. The main reason I write this here is not for the average nurse without addiction problems. It's for the acutely addicted or a recovering nurse who needs a little hope. Maybe one day she/or he will stumble across this area and read it. And it might make a difference. It would all be worth it, just for that.
But for you Jack, it's all about the naked dancing.
:up:
jackstem
670 Posts
Thanks family! I can't stay clean and sober without my family surrounding me!!!
YEEEEE HAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!