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The news, and the skews, in the national media
VAlue
Nurses should be a highly prized asset in every
addiction service, says Ishbel Straker
IN A MONTH’S TIME I AM DUE TO REVALIDATE WITH THE NURSING AND
MIDWIFERY COUNCIL (NMC). It was three years ago since I last did this, and
what a lot has happened in this time.
Revalidation, similar to the appraisal process for doctors, is not only a
regulatory requirement, it is also an opportunity to reflect on past practice
and future purpose. This is invaluable and something that is significantly
enhanced by the professional acting in the role of confirmer (appraiser).
In all my roles as a senior nurse I have been part of this process on behalf
of nurses who worked within my services – and ensured that within the
organisations I had responsibility for, I highlighted this process of compliance
and ensured it was adhered to.
This is the role of a senior nurse – not just to support the organisation
with its compliance, but most importantly to support the nurses. Within the
addiction field over the past three years I have watched organisations value
and devalue nurses, realising their
need and then removing this due to a
focus on expense over quality – and
then subsequently complaining that
there are issues with recruitment!
Nurses have become the fat that
can be trimmed from organisations
for a quick ‘book-keeping’ win,
without a thought for the care of the
patients. In recent conversations with
a CQC inspector I discussed why this
seems to be the case and concluded
that this occurs so frequently because
those who are doing the trimming
have no investment or understanding
of the profession and see it as an
easily replaceable job.
This I feel is due to the quality of
nurses within the addiction field who
make the job look so easy, who get on
with the role without complaint and
who have trained to take on multiple
roles within this sphere, making the
job look ‘easy’.
So, what’s the answer? Well for a
start, organisations need to
recognise that nurses have value and that the training we undertake enables
us to take on multiple roles within substance misuse services with
exceptional ability. Regardless of whether this role appears to be able to be
done by non-nurses, I would vehemently argue the case against devaluing
this highly skilled profession.
Ishbel Straker is a clinical director, registered mental health nurse,
independent nurse prescriber and board member of IntNSA
‘Nurses have
become the fat
that can be
trimmed from
organisations
for a quick
‘book-keeping’
win, without a
thought for the
care of the
patients.’
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
‘Moderation has
been rebranded
as middle of the
road, a cop-out.
Dry January is a
panacea for the
worried well...’
THE MOVEMENT FOR MODERATION IN
ALL THINGS HAS GIVEN WAY TO
EXCLUSION ZONES, to the virtuous circle
of cutting out, amputating, becoming
free from. Conflicting messages on
whether a glass of red wine is good or
bad for you leave us feeling that not
drinking at all is the route to eternal life.
This purge mentality is not new – it has
its roots in fasting and hair shirts.
Banishing harm or pleasure from our
lives is a form of self-control when
everything else is chaotic and not
susceptible to individual influence.
Moderation has been rebranded as
middle of the road, a cop-out. Dry
January is a panacea for the worried
well, a form of hypochondria.
Linda Grant, Guardian, 4 February
THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE DRINKING
ABOVE THE CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER’S
GUIDELINES TELLS US NOTHING about
how many people are drinking at a
dangerous level. This should come as
no surprise. We know that the chief
medical officer’s guidelines do not
reflect the risks of
drinking. We might also
conclude that there are
no benefits to be had
from reducing alcohol
consumption unless it is
the heaviest drinkers who
are cutting down. No
purpose is served by
getting moderate
drinkers to become light
drinkers, nor by getting
light drinkers to become
teetotallers. This might
seem obvious, but much that
is obvious is denied by the philosopher
kings of ‘public health’ academia.
Christopher Snowdon, Spectator,
8 February
THERE ARE THOSE WHO CALL FOR A
SURRENDER IN THE WAR ON DRUGS.
This isn’t going to happen. Nor should
it. Cocaine, like alcohol, and unlike
heroin or marijuana, has no
recognised therapeutic role. Society
has a clear and legitimate interest in
discouraging its use. The war on drugs
must be fought, but like most wars it
causes most casualties among non-
combatants. The strategic objective is
not so much the capture of occasional
kingpins, but minimising the harm
they, and their products, do to their
customers, whether by addiction or
incarceration.
Guardian editorial, 13 February
THIS COUNTRY IS NOW PAYING A
VERY HEAVY PRICE FOR FAILING TO
ENFORCE ITS LAWS AGAINST
MARIJUANA for more than 40 years.
Its use, though not general, is horribly
widespread and we now have a hard
core of regular users, visible early in
wrecked schooling, later in broken,
hopeless lives, unemployable husks of
humans begging in shop doorways, a
grief to their families and a charge on
the state, and in many cases confined
to the locked wards of mental
hospitals. But it is sometimes worse
than that. What we also see, if we
look, is that the culprits of a startling
number of crazy, violent offences, here
and abroad, were cannabis users.
Peter Hitchens, Mail on Sunday,
3 February
March 2019 | drinkanddrugsnews | 21