Addicted Nurses: Healing the Caregiver

Nurses touch all of our lives with their skills, compassion, time, and energy. They are the ones that spend the time with us explaining what the physician didn’t take the time to tell us. They are the ones we see and get to know, even better than our personal physicians. They are called “angels” and healers. They are truly the caretakers of our health and the gateway to our healthcare system..

Nurses however, are humans too. They work hard in an occupation that is filled with stress and great responsibility. They have families and responsibilities like everyone else. And now it seems, that we have found that nurses have the same addictive behavior as the public. Yes, approximately 10% of all nurses are abusing drugs or alcohol, just like the public sector. That means that one out of ten nurses are probably impaired some of the time they are taking care of us. They are “medicating” their stressors the same way the general public does.

This book explains addiction and drug abuse, the types of drugs commonly abused, their effects, and the physical symptoms someone exhibits when using them. It also gives guidance in how to help the impaired nurse, what programs or treatments are available and the success rates. There are many resources available to the impaired nurse. This book just may be the eye-opener that an impaired nurse or the friend, family or co-worker of an impaired nurse needs to create a wonderful opportunity for change. Change is needed to help, and support the impaired nurses in our workforce.