The AANA is doing its thing!!! The American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) has taken the lead in nursing with assisting its members and the CRNA community with addiction, treatment, and recovery. See http://www.aana.com/peerassist.aspx. This organization is light years ahead of other nursing professional associations in so many ways its scary. Not only peer assistance but wellness also.
AANA has an active peer assistance program nationally and peer assistance advisors in all or most of the 50 states. http://webapps.aana.com/Peer/directory.asp
AANA even has a peer assistance hotline. AANA Peer Assistance Hotline 800/654-5167
My legal assistant Jack is a volunteer peer assistance advisor here in Ohio http://osana.org/ and therefore I know first hand the wonderful things this program is doing for CRNA and Student Nurse Anesthetists. Jack is a former CRNA who surrended his Ohio license because of his addiction over a decade ago.
Why hasn't other national nursing professional associations stepped up like the AANA has for its members with addiction, treatment, and recovery? Is addiction, treatment, and recovery only an issue with CRNAs? Of course not so why haven't other national and specialty nursing associations stepped up to assist the profession? Where is the voice of these national nursing unions with respect to addiction, treatment, and recovery in nursing?
The majority of CRNAs in the US belong to the AANA while the majority of the 3 million RNs in the US don't belong to a national, specialty, or state nursing association or a nursing union. I wonder why? Stop the in-fighting and go grassroots with a issue like this which hits close to home. Maybe just maybe your membership numbers will increase :)
I have alot of cases (actually a large percentages of my cases) that involve allegations of abuse, impairment, and medication discrepancies in my law practice. We work very closely with our clients who are in recovery and it is a process. State Nursing Board complaints, suspensions, alternative to discipline programs, probation and monitoring, employment, return to work issues, criminal charges, criminal probation, etc. A long and complex process that we enjoy performing because there is a light at the end of the tunnel and its not a train!
I would like to see a national nurses association or a national union which both purport to represent the profession step up the plate and do for RNs nationally and on the state level what AANA does for CRNAs with respect to addiction, treatment, and recovery. I am willing to roll up my sleeves and become a super volunteer to assist with this type of endeavor. I can dream, right?
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