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 professionals has been difficult to determine. Even attempting to estimate its prevalence among health care professionals can prove somewhat hazardous. According to the advocacy group, Physicians Recovery Network, the intense social stigma applied to chemically dependent physicians tends to force them into hiding. The AMA has reported that perhaps as many as 10 percent to 15 percent of all physicians will become dependent on either drugs, or alcohol, or both, at...