Substance Abuse and Chemical Dependency
Introduction
According to UAB's health website, "Substance abuse is used to describe a pattern of substance (drug) use leading to significant problems or distress such as failure to attend work/school, substance use in dangerous situations (driving a car), substance-related legal problems, or continued substance use that interferes with friendships and or family relationships. Substance abuse, as a disorder, refers to the abuse of illegal substances or the abusive use of legal substances. Alcohol is the most common legal drug of abuse."
"Chemical dependence is used to describe the compulsive use of chemicals (drugs or alcohol) and the inability to stop using them despite all the problems caused by their use." (http://www.health.uab.edu)
Most people look to their health care providers with gratitude, respect, and even love, especially toward physicians and surgeons. Being held in such high regard by the public, care providers should strive to be an example in ethics to the public they serve. The healthcare community as a whole is constructed of responsible, caring and highly trained professionals, whose main interest and goal is the well-being of their patients. But among these professionals there is also a group that has fallen or will fall prey to the dangers of substance abuse and/or chemical dependence. The major hypothesis of my research is; there is a social, ethical, economical and patient safety problem of substance abuse and chemical dependency among healthcare professionals.
In a recent lecture given by one of my nursing instructors she made the statement that ten of the seventy-four students presently enrolled in their first semester of the nursing program would be brought before the State Board of Nursing within the next ten years for a drug related incidence. This statement was disturbing and I decided that this topic was worthy of research, and possibly even vital to me as a future entry-level registered nurse.
"Among health care professionals such as
According to UAB's health website, "Substance abuse is used to describe a pattern of substance (drug) use leading to significant problems or distress such as failure to attend work/school, substance use in dangerous situations (driving a car), substance-related legal problems, or continued substance use that interferes with friendships and or family relationships. Substance abuse, as a disorder, refers to the abuse of illegal substances or the abusive use of legal substances. Alcohol is the most common legal drug of abuse."
"Chemical dependence is used to describe the compulsive use of chemicals (drugs or alcohol) and the inability to stop using them despite all the problems caused by their use." (http://www.health.uab.edu)
Most people look to their health care providers with gratitude, respect, and even love, especially toward physicians and surgeons. Being held in such high regard by the public, care providers should strive to be an example in ethics to the public they serve. The healthcare community as a whole is constructed of responsible, caring and highly trained professionals, whose main interest and goal is the well-being of their patients. But among these professionals there is also a group that has fallen or will fall prey to the dangers of substance abuse and/or chemical dependence. The major hypothesis of my research is; there is a social, ethical, economical and patient safety problem of substance abuse and chemical dependency among healthcare professionals.
In a recent lecture given by one of my nursing instructors she made the statement that ten of the seventy-four students presently enrolled in their first semester of the nursing program would be brought before the State Board of Nursing within the next ten years for a drug related incidence. This statement was disturbing and I decided that this topic was worthy of research, and possibly even vital to me as a future entry-level registered nurse.
"Among health care professionals such as