in the Auditorium of the Indiana Government Center-South 302 West Washington Street Indianapolis, Indiana 46204 For more information, click here.INDIANA STATE BOARD OF NURSING Will meet on Thursday, Septemat 8:30 a.m. You can report yourself, a family member, or a co-worker to ISNAP. You think if I do this, my career is over, my life is over. “For any nurses out there that are thinking, no way.
She’s now working as a recovery nurse at Fairbanks and sharing her story, in hopes of inspiring other nurses to get help before it’s too late. “I remember that feeling, but I knew if I didn’t take that step, I was going to be dead.” High… had to be,” she said.Īfter getting caught stealing drugs, going through dozens of jobs, going to jail, and even an overdose, Lori took the steps to change her life in January 2015. I was that mom that was at every ball game. Even her bosses didn’t know she was high at work. She said she hid her addiction from everyone. The pressure to keep a good job means many nurses will do anything to feed their addiction. “The majority of them, there’s a hammer over their head,” he said.Īccording to the state’s department of workforce development, nursing is the most in demand profession in Indiana. Lindquist admits it can be difficult to get help. “They’ll give medication to the patient and then they’ll take what’s left over,” he said.
Lindquist said easy access to drugs is the number one reason nurses become addicted. There are another 70 going through the intake process. Right now at ISNAP, there are just over 400 nurses in the monitoring program. Nurses are expected to do a lot more with less,” Lindquist said. When a nurse is caught using drugs or admits to an addiction, they’re referred to ISNAP’s programs. One of them was accused of stealing Fentanyl from an automated dispensing machine.Ībout 500 of 130,000 licensed nurses in the Hoosier State are addicted to drugs and alcohol.Ĭhuck Lindquist is the program director for Indiana State Nurses Assistance Program or ISNAP. This year, three nurses were arrested who were employed by Ball Memorial Hospital. Indiana has seen recent high-profile cases of both nurses and doctors getting caught using and abusing drugs at work. Studies estimate about 10 percent of nurses nationwide have an addiction.
This will help get me through the morning. “My son was 4 months old and I still had pain medication in my medicine cabinet from when he was born, but I remembered thinking, those gave me a little bit of energy. She tells the story of the first time she took a few pills to help her get through the day. She says that’s what started a downward spiral that would later put a huge dent in her promising career. After her father’s death, she dealt with postpartum depression after her son was born. Lori started doing drugs while on the job as a nurse. “My addiction took me places that I never in a million years thought I would go,” she said. Then, her sister died from an overdose in 2014. Lori’s dad became addicted to drugs by age 60. I love the patients and I love my co-workers,” she said.īut there’s also something else in her genes. The caring, compassionate mission to save lives was embedded in her genes. She started out on the switchboard at a hospital when she was just a teenager. – For Lori Rhinebarger, you could say nursing is in her blood. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated.
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