A Second Thank You Note

There are many nursing specialties. I mentioned a few of them in my blog post ‘A Thank You Note’ from yesterday. The specialty that I failed to mention is that of nurses working in Detox facilities. We seem to be a special breed. Our brand of nursing involves the neurobiological management of alcohol and substance withdrawal. That’s a mouthful! We are caring for an individual experiencing the rapid brain changes that occur due to withdrawal from long term alcohol and/or drug abuse. We collaborate with and care for clients from an extremely intoxicated or substance affected state, through an acute withdrawal period and into sobriety. Many, many times they do not remember that they had even been in a Detox.

Detox nurses monitor and manage extreme states of anxiety, work at preventing seizures and manage states of high blood pressure for these clients. We educate, or attempt to educate, our folks on how to eat. That sounds kind of odd, even as I write this, but many people in active addiction have very little interest in, and sometimes opportunity for, regular eating. Many unpleasant gastric effects with the various forms of substance withdrawal requires a finesse that allows Detox nurses to minimize the discomfort, averting medical emergencies. All of this in 24 to 48 hours for the most acute stages in a young and relatively healthy individual. The older the individual, more medically compromised or a longer period of active addiction can extend this short phase. 

Nurses in other nursing areas also see withdrawal on a far too regular basis. From the Emergency Room to the Operating and Recovery rooms and all the nursing units in between. Not to be forgotten are the Neonatal Intensive Care units with the wee tiny babes sadly born into withdrawal. To wade through the stigma of addiction, to push past it to evaluate, assess and collaborate with all these clients is an extremely difficult part of this job. To encounter violence and yet offer kindness is another extremely difficult part of this job. 

We are often the last bastion of care to be offered and accepted willingly. Establishing an individual’s physical and mental health allows them to take the next step into the foreign land of recovery. In this continuum, Detox is relatively easy yet often the most physically painful, compared to ongoing recovery from active addiction. So far, to my knowledge there is not a formal Addictions Nursing Specialty in Canada, so I say to all nurses, thank you for your good care of those individuals of any age and in any state of health to arrest active addiction and provide respite from an extremely chaotic world. Thank you for seeing the person beneath active addiction.

“The future depends on what you do today.”

~ Mahatma Ghandi