choosing anesthesiology as their profession --thus, those who are looking for chemicals are attracted to the profession and finding what they want (Gallegos 116-122).
However, genetic influences should not be overlooked, as 85.6% of chemically dependent health professionals had a family history of addiction. Factors besides genetic predisposition and environmental exposure that play a role in the development of impairment are poor coping skills, stress, lack of education on how chemical dependence impairs performance, lack of prevention and control strategies, drug availability in a permissive social and professional milieu and denial of the problem . Early detection by improved monitoring for substance abuse, intervention, treatment and close surveillance of recovery can help reduce the problem (Gallegos 1988b).
A survey of 289 physician and nurse training programs indicated that the faculty had a higher incidence of drug abuse than the students. Thus, increasing age and professional education do not correlate with imm
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