Every profession has a preset standard of ethics. While many professions don’t have any explicitly laid out moral and ethical standards, professions like nursing require a stricter policy. Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, law enforcement and even the judiciary take the Oath of the Constitution, and likewise, many such critical professions have high ethical and moral standards.
Nurses have a very important job. They are the primary caregivers; they attend to the basic and even some complicated medical needs of patients, and they are often the first line of response to any emergencies or just the welfare of patients. Thus, nurses should ensure that they are at their professional best while carrying out their duties. Nurses cannot indulge in drugs or any kind of substance abuse. While personal lives are segregated from professional lives, the long hours of work, the dependence of patients on the physical and psychological condition of the nurses, and the very nature of the work demand that nurses do not indulge in drugs or substance abuse during or before their work.
For many years, there was widespread dismissal of narcotic use and diversion in nursing. It was not till 1984 that the use of drugs and other substances was acknowledged by the American Nurses Association. The body accepted the reality that nurses would indulge in substance abuse, including the consumption of alcohol, taking drugs that are illegal, and even prescribed medications, to be under the influence while working and attending to patients. There is limited research available today, but healthcare facilities and associations of medical professionals across the country have been urged to have policies pertaining to narcotic use and diversion in nursing.
Nurses under the influence of drugs or some substance would fail in their duties, which can have fatal consequences for the patients. Nurses should be able to maintain the highest standards of ethics and morality while performing their duties. According to one report published in 2001, anywhere from 2% to 18% of all nurses engage in substance abuse of some kind and to varying degrees of severity.
The American Nurses Association estimates that nurses depending on chemical-induced intoxication can be up to 8% of all nurses. There have been many reported cases of drug and substance abuse among nurses in North Carolina, Ohio, and many other states, which have been studied over the years to come up with an effective policy for nurses.
Dismissal of the possibility of nurses becoming dependent on drugs is not the way forward. Timely identification of the problem, adequate rehabilitation measures, and surefire recovery would be the ideal approach.