Texas Gives Drug Addicted Nurses Second Chances
**The second of two parts on Texas nurses battling substance abuse problems. (Part one is here.)
For years, Leanne Malone balanced drug addiction and nursing, caring for her Port Arthur patients while on methamphetamines. When she was arrested, she thought her career might be over.
But Texas gives some nurses with substance abuse problems second chances, and Malone was one of them. The Texas Board of Nursing enrolled her in the Texas Peer Assistance Program for Nurses, a state-run rehab program for nurses with chemical dependency or mental illness. After completing a several month long outpatient treatment plan, she was ...
Comments (1)
klynnp
This article points out the very small percentage of nurses who have been reprimanded for substance abuse. It is by no means an indictment against all of the nurses in the state of Texas. The comment that was made by “drnancy99502” that, “You report how many nurses have been disciplined for substance abuse issues without reporting how many nurses are licensed in Texas”, but if you look deeper there is a comment that addresses “drnancy99502” problem with this article. In the fourth paragraph it states, “The nurses make up just a tiny portion of the state’s 300,000 licensed and registered nurses”. This indicates, if you do the math, less than 1% of Texas nurses have been reprimanded for substance abuse problems. My hats off to the 99% of Texas nurses who are working hard to care for the wellbeing of their patients, and I applaud their level of integrity.
Initially I was not going to make a comment, but I decided that I would comment. I am a victim as well as a couple of my family members of the affects of “Nursing a Habit” from a licensed nurse in the state of Texas who falls within this tiny portion of nurses discussed in this article. This individual’s substance abuse issue could have cost us our lives one night, but we were spared only by grace. I said all of that to say this, there is validity to this article. Trust me I know.