Texas Nurses Battle Drug Addictions
**The first of two parts on Texas nurses battling substance abuse problems. (Part two is here.)
Texas nurses with substance abuse problems — including showing up to work drunk or high, stealing narcotics meant for patients, and forging doctor signatures on prescriptions for pain-killers — are often not punished for their acts for months or even years and continue to practice in the meantime, according to a Texas Tribune review of state nursing disciplinary records.
The reason? Nurses often fight the allegations against them, hiring lawyers, asking for a postponement, and demanding administrative hearings, which can take up to three months to ...
Comments (3)
Richard Moore
If the process involves "peer review", count me as skeptical!
drnancy99502
It does nurses and the public a disservice to focus on those with substance abuse problems without putting the number into context. You report how many nurses have been disciplined for substance abuse issues without reporting how many nurses are licensed in Texas and the percentage of the total who are disciplined. The public deserves to know the whole story. The overwhelming majority of nurses practice a full career without these issues. The nurse regulators should be thanked that the profession is policed and action is taken. Additionally, you fail to focus on the nurse's right to due process.
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.