Essay On The Importance Of Understanding Addiction In The Field Of Nursing

The study and understanding of addiction is important for everyday life. Professionals in the field of healthcare, education, government and non-profits rely on the existing information about addiction in order to do their jobs and interact with the public. Understanding how addiction works is important for anyone who works with people, given that addiction can affect anyone, regardless of race, gender or socio-economic status. The more everyone knows about addiction, the easier it is to break down the stigma attached to addiction so that more people feel comfortable seeking help.
An example of how knowledge about addiction is as follows. A high school teacher may notice towards the end of the school year that one of their student's grades has dropped drastically over the past month and a half. This student once handed in their homework on time, participated in class and did well on the tests. If she didn't understand the material, she would get help after class. Recently, she's started to cut class, seldom hands in her homework and falls asleep during class when she does show up. Her teacher is concerned and talks to the school's social worker about the student's behavior. Following the teacher's recommendation, the social worker intervenes and eventually discovers that the student is experiencing challenges in her home life and has started taking painkillers left-over from her mother's surgery to help cope with the stress of suddenly having to take care of her siblings. Thanks to the awareness of the teacher and social worker, the student is now able to gain access to the support she needs to work towards using less harmful coping mechanisms to deal with her stress.
Having a working knowledge of how addiction affects people is important on a personal level. In college, there are many times when abusable substances are available to students. Although some levels of experimentation are deemed socially acceptable, it is important to understand when experimenting has crossed over to addiction. For example, alcohol is something that many college students experiment with while in school. Although drinking under the age of 21 is illegal in the United States, many students use alcohol to get through social situations and “to have a good time”. Whilerelying on alcohol to make socializing more enjoyable and easier is not a sign of a healthy relationship with alcohol, many students are able to use alcohol on the weekends at parties or with their friends and still get their schoolwork done during the week. However, for some students, maintaining sobriety during the week is more difficult, and, they may find themselves drinking alcohol more frequently than their peers and may even drink by themselves. Instead of using alcohol as a way to interact with others, alcohol becomes a crutch to help deal with stress or depression. At this point, the hypothetical student meets the criteria for alcohol addiction. As a fellow college student, it is important to understand what addiction looks like and how to intervene. Although the student is using alcohol excessively, they might not feel as though it's a problem because “everyone drinks in college”. However, without treatment, this hypothetical student may have a very difficult time dealing with their stressors without the use of alcohol during college and after graduation.
Addiction is very important for future nurses, such as myself, to understand. Addiction is the root of many health concerns—both physical and emotional. Without an understanding of how addiction affects people, nurses will not be able to provide the best medical care possible. A nurse in a psychiatric ward also needs to be aware of how addiction can influence mental illnesses. For example, if a patient is hospitalized for severe depression, it is important to ask about their drug and alcohol use. It is common for people with mental illnesses, such as depression, to use drugs or alcohol to self-medicate in an attempt to mask their feelings of hopelessness or to help them sleep. As a healthcare professional, it is important to understand that in order for a patient to make progress in recovering from severe depression, addressing substance use and abuse is an important component of treatment. Addiction changes the way the brain functions, and not in a way that makes it easier to treat depression or other mental illnesses. Drugs and alcohol also negatively interact with many psychiatric medications, so it is important that the patient feels like they have the resources and support to deal with the addiction part of their mental illness as well.
Having an understanding of what addiction looks like, how it affects people and how it can best be treated is important for anyone who works with other people. As a future nurse, it is even more important for me to understand how addiction affects physical and mental conditions in my patients. Although researchers still do not understand everything about addiction, there is enough information available to healthcare professionals on how to treat patients with addiction and new information is discovered constantly.