Addiction in Nursing

Both alcohol and drug abuse are a serious issue plaguing the nursing profession. Drug abuse in nursing includes both illegal drugs and prescribed medications. Not only do they acquire these drugs from dealers on the streets, but also through diverting it from patient prescriptions. This paper will discuss the root causes of this serious problem. The statistics of the number of addicted nurses will be presented. Lastly, what can be done to address this problem will be overviewed.

Nurses are on health care's front lines. Their hard work, compassion and passion are in increasing demand. Increasing healthcare costs, an increasing aged population, high unemployment and poverty levels, and a variety of other societal factors have all resulted in increasing challenges for the nursing profession and an increasing reliance on their patient care skills. Disturbingly, there are also an increasing number of nurses who have an addiction problem....
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