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Fit For Duty Recovery v. Prosecution. Medical Law LDR 650 Karin Newsom Lori Reau Kelly Scott. Fitness For Duty. Definition: The requisite knowledge along with the physiological and psychological ability to carry out the role and responsibilities of a registered professional nurse.
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Fit For Duty Recovery v. Prosecution Medical Law LDR 650 Karin Newsom Lori Reau Kelly Scott
Fitness For Duty • Definition: The requisite knowledge along with the physiological and psychological ability to carry out the role and responsibilities of a registered professional nurse. • If a nurse is not fit for duty and suspected of diversion a next level of action must occur. • There are proponents for and against the current process in the healthcare recovery program and the federal and state laws of treating the registered nurse with and addiction problem.
Introduction • The majority of the general population is unaware of how widespread drug addiction has become as a serious social and health problem in the US today. • People addicted to Rx medication come from all financial and occupational levels. • However, the last people we would suspect of this are the people we trust with our well-being, healthcare professionals.
Statistics • 1 in 7 nurses will experience a problem with drugs or alcohol over their career, sufficient enough to impair performance. • ER nurses are 3.5 times as likely to use substances. • Oncology and Administrative nurses are 2 times as likely to binge-drink. • Psychiatric nurses are 2.5 times as likely to smoke. • 8% to 12% of physicians are estimated to develop a substance abuse problem. • ED and Anesthesiology physicians specialties are the highest risk for drug abuse.
Statistics (cont.) • The previous set of statistics reveals the effects of a stressful profession, human coping mechanisms, and opportunities to reduce that stress by diversion or other methods. • Any healthcare professional practicing while impaired violates the standards of professional practice.
Analysis/Discussion • Which option of incarceration or a treatment program, would work for the professional registered nurse? • Which option benefits and protects the American consumer, the quality and options of care they receive?
Analysis/Discussion (cont.) • A person outside of the healthcare professional occupation would be arrested for trafficking or illegal use of narcotics. • Healthcare professionals have another option of using the healthcare professional recovery program (HPRP).
Health Professionals Recovery Program • HPRP is a confidential program designated to encourage health professionals to seek treatment before their impairment harms a patient or damages their careers through disciplinary or regulatory action. • The State of Michigan’s Health Professional Recovery Program was established in 1994 by legislation. This program is administered through a contract with the Department of Community Health/Bureau of Health Professionals and is supported by various health professional licensing boards and the associations and societies of the health professions in the State.
HPRP • “The HPRP supports the recovery of its participants so may safely return to practice and protect the safety of the general public” (Michigan Department of Community Health, 2011). • The HPRP is a confidential program. Once professional is accepted into the HPRP, their participation and records are not subject to subpoena or the Freedom of Information Act.
Opposition • Some law enforcement groups state that the rules for this option allow the medical professional to escape prosecution and public disclosure (Peterson, 2010). • There is a lack of reporting and tracking system and that allows healthcare professional to continue diverting, even while in a recovery program of the delay in communication and getting restrictions put on their license.
Opposition (cont.) • Hundreds of nurses who have been accused of stealing drugs from where they work are still at patients bedsides because the State Board of Nursing which licenses and disciplines nurses can take up to six years to act and they favor rehabilitation over punishment. • Nurse Managers unknowingly hire alleged narcotic thieves who are in the board’s confidential rehabilitation program.
Position • Our position is that the HPRP brings better results than direct prosecution, incarceration, and removal of licensure. • This allows nurses to recover and resume work vital to their communities. • HPRP motivates health professionals to enter treatment and to recover from their impairment and it will minimize the losses and other negative implications which have occurred in the past when disease of addiction and mental health were addressed only as if they were criminal acts.
Position (cont.) • The people of the State of Michigan will benefit from the continued and safe of these professionals, without the unnecessary interruptions of practice which often were required by the disciplinary process. “Furthermore, the licensing boards will be more able to address those cases of health professionals who truly need to be disciplined” (Michigan Department of Community Health, 2011).
Position (cont.) • The HPRP is a caring and compassionate approach to the treatable conditions and addictions which may cause impairment. • “The HPRP is able to bring opportunity for recovery without the threat of punishment” (Michigan Department of Community Health, 2011).
Conclusion • It is the philosophy of the health professional recovery program that chemical dependency and mental illness are treatable conditions and addictions. • By providing healthcare professionals an opportunity to enter into such a program and treatment and to recover from their disease is beneficial to the professional, family, and employer. • This treatment can serve to minimize the negative impacts on them that they may be exposed to.
