Nurses and Drug Addiction: New Standards in the Medical Profession
Drug abuse and addiction is a common problem for those in the medical profession. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists and others are often caught forging prescriptions to augment a prescription drug addiction habit. In California, new standards are being implemented to keep nurses from falling victim to drug addiction and nurses currently in recovery are being kept under a close watch.
According to McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, health care workers who have gone through drug rehab for drug and/ or alcohol addiction in California will be facing strict guidelines in the future.
After Drug Rehab: The Issues Facing Medical Workers
More so than perhaps any other industry, those in the health care services are under more scrutiny than anyone when they return from drug rehab. The constant access to prescription medications means that opportunities will often arise to abuse and steal drugs. As a recovering addict, this temptation can prove to be too much and when others are depending on you to do your job in life and death situations, the risk of relapse is not taken lightly.
After Drug Rehab: The Recovery Process and Guidelines
In order to ensure that relapses are not happening, biweekly drug tests are mandatory for nurses after completing drug rehab and the cost of those tests as well as the corresponding clinical evaluations fall upon the nurse. This process starts well before the nurse is reinstated to his position; after a time of consistently negative drug tests, then the health care worker may return to his job.
Once employment resumes, these drug tests continue. In fact, in California, a nurse or other health care worker back at work after drug rehab will undergo 104 drug tests in the first year. Should just one of these drug tests come back with a negative result, the health care worker will immediately have his license suspended temporarily, pending reinstatement after another period of negative drug tests.
After Drug Rehab: Public Versus Private in the Medical Industry
Unlike most professions where your drug addiction and recovery status is considered a medical record and therefore protected for privacy by HIPAA laws, the medical profession will out publicly those who have had their license suspended and those who are subject to extra supervision. Though it is never specifically stated that drug addiction is the reason, it is often assumed that this or a similar violation took place and is the reason for the suspension.
A number of California health care workers feel that this is a violation of their rights and have protested this new guideline. However, these changes to the rules for post-drug rehab health care workers are reportedly in response to a news investigation that revealed that nurses were not only being allowed to treat patients while actively using drugs but that many were stealing drugs from work to maintain their addiction as well. The blame fell upon the confidential rehabilitation program and the fix is this public announcement of suspended licenses and workers who need heightened supervision.
If you would like more information about the post-drug rehab guidelines for California health care workers, check out www.dca.ca.gov.
