Addiction is a complex disease with serious physical, emotional, financial, and legal consequences (StuNursing.com, 2016). Drug addiction can affect anyone regardless of age, occupation, economic circumstances, ethnic background or gender, its progressive and chronic (StuNursing.com, 2016). Nurses have increased access to controlled substances, contributing to a higher incidence of dependency, the sooner substance use is identified and treated the sooner patients are protected and the better the chances of nurses returning to work (StuNursing.com, 2016). Many nurses are not aware of the warning signs of SUD in their co-workers. Due to other responsibilities and duties the warning signs may go unnoticed (StuNursing.com2016). Due to SUD not being identified, unreported, untreated nurses may continue to practice where they are endangering the lives of their patients (StuNursing.com2016). SUD among health
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Physical changes include:
• Subtle changes in appearance that may escalate over time;
• Increasing isolation from colleagues;
• Inappropriate verbal or emotional responses; and
• Diminished alertness, confusion or memory lapses (StuNursing.com2016).
Other signs to look for are medication irregularities or discrepancies, record falsifications and any patterns of complaints by patients (StuNursing.com2016). Nurses should ignore stereotypes of what a “typical” person with SUD looks like, SUD is a disease and can affect anyone regardless of age, occupation, economic circumstances, ethnic background or gender (StuNursing.com2016). National Council of State Board of Nursing has provided many resources to help nurses identify SUD: The “Substance Use Disorder in Nursing” video, at ncsbn.org/sud; The “Understanding Substance Use Disorder in Nursing” online course and “Nurse Manager Guidelines for Substance Use Disorder”
Physical changes include:
• Subtle changes in appearance that may escalate over time;
• Increasing isolation from colleagues;
• Inappropriate verbal or emotional responses; and
• Diminished alertness, confusion or memory lapses (StuNursing.com2016).
Other signs to look for are medication irregularities or discrepancies, record falsifications and any patterns of complaints by patients (StuNursing.com2016). Nurses should ignore stereotypes of what a “typical” person with SUD looks like, SUD is a disease and can affect anyone regardless of age, occupation, economic circumstances, ethnic background or gender (StuNursing.com2016). National Council of State Board of Nursing has provided many resources to help nurses identify SUD: The “Substance Use Disorder in Nursing” video, at ncsbn.org/sud; The “Understanding Substance Use Disorder in Nursing” online course and “Nurse Manager Guidelines for Substance Use Disorder”