Chemical Dependence Among Health Care Professionals

Health care professionals must often cope with considerable stress. When these workers are unable to maintain emotional or physiological balance they can become impaired. One form of impairment is chemical dependence. In fact, health care professionals may be particularly prone to drug abuse: The same compulsiveness that enables these individuals to succeed academically, may also lead to difficulty in other areas of life. People who become chemically dependent need to be confronted early. Moreover, nurses can influence treatment outcome.

The process of helping others can sometimes create stress for health care professionals (Heim, 1991, pp. 90-98). This stress can ultimately lead to impaired functioning. In 1972, the American Medical Association's (AMA) Council on Mental Health defined physician impairment. The phenomenon was described as "the inability to practice medicine with reasonable skill and safety to patients by reason of physical or mental illness, including alcoholism or drug dependence" (Smith & Smith, 1991, p. 599). Clearly, chemical dependence is a major form of impairment. This dependency is a primary disease characterized by the continuous and "compulsive use of mood-altering substance or substances (including alcohol) despite adverse consequences (Talbott, Gallegos, Wilson, Thomas, & Porter, 1987, p. 2927).

The statistical significance of the drug abuse problem among health care profes

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cal dependency can have adverse effects both for individual health care professionals and the people around them. If left untreated, dependency is a progressive and destructive illness. The disease eventually results in an accumulation of increasingly severe and potentially irreversible consequences. These may involve practically all aspects of a health care professional's life and ultimately affect, not only their physical health, but their mental health and social welfare as well (Harris, 1986, pp. 2-3). Just some of the problems experienced by chemically dependent health care professionals include severe disruption in family life, the development of legal problems, and social dysfunction. These persons are more prone to marital discord, more likely to drive while intoxicated, and tend to become intoxicated at social functions. In addition, the chemically dependent may exhibit disruptive behavior at meetings, fail to complete committee assignments, or forget social appointments (Harris, 1986, pp. 2-3). In fact, physicians are rarely caught actually self-medicating or drinking on the job. Rather, dependency problems are usually evidenced by such things as the frequent changing of jobs, poor coping mechanisms, and progress
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Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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