ER Nurses and addictions

[Nurseagainstdeugs]

Its sad when good nurses go bad when they develop addictions to pain meds to self medicate from stress. I have a friend who is an addict for many years that I reported and the hospital has in so many ways interfered with a state run investigation to protect the reputation of the hospital while knowingly enabling his addictions.

[awheat]

Does the hospital have a program to help employees with this problem? I know many employers have such things (sad that we need it to begin with). Pain meds for stress? Crazy idea - I do not see how that could help but I do know many who benefit from anti-depressants. So sad

[GitanoRN]

Unquestionably,diversion in nursing is at a high and signs of diversion can be subtle,the nurse may volunteer to administer medications for others or hold the narcotics keys/count. Furthermore,their patients receive more PRN pain medications but report non-effective pain relief. Therefore, they may be frequent reports of lost or wasted medications etc. Undoubtedly, this nurse may request to work in an area of high pain medication administration. Certainly, there are more and more hospitals that do offer help in this area, however, the denial on their addiction is very prominent and difficult to confront in most cases, for this reason alone you might lose a colleague but in the long run win a friend if you report the issue. Needless to say, it is one of the most sad and severe situations we nurses can face since it affect us all.

[medicaltransportflorida]

I have read some article regarding same topic. A typical ER shift and a male nurse who is on his way to total burn-out.