An Unlikely Addict: One Nurse's Journey Through Addiction To Helping Others

Summary: It’s not until a major incident occurs that health systems pay attention to substance use among their clinicians. We need to do better for everyone’s sake.

Written By: Kristin Waite-Labott, BSN, RN, CARN, CPRC, founder and president of the Wisconsin Peer Alliance for Nurses (WisPAN)

You might think twice about flying if you knew your pilot was impaired, yet every day, many of us entrust our care to nurses who are under the influence of Percocet, fentanyl, or other opiates.

While research varies, several studies suggest about 10% of nurses are dependent on drugs and alcohol, and as many as 1 in 5 have misused drugs or alcohol at some point in their career.

In states like Wisconsin, which employs 100,000 full-time and part-time nurses, that’s the equivalent of 10,000 or more RNs, LPNs, and other nursing professionals.

Sadly, it’s not until a major incident occurs — such as a nurse’s drug overdose or a clinician’s arrest and imprisonment for diverting drugs — that the issue of substance use among healthcare professionals, and the concurrent issue of healthcare diversion, receives attention.

By then, it’s often too late. Not only are patients and communities impacted by drug diversion on the part of nurses and other clinical professionals, but nurses themselves are impacted in immeasurable ways. I can say these things are true because of my own experience with drug diversion while employed as a nurse, which led to me serving a four-month jail sentence and losing the only career I had ever known.

My Story, Part of a Silent Epidemic

My story begins when I entered college in 1989. Away from home for the first time, I drank heavily with my friends. I loved the feeling of confidence that I felt while under the influence of alcohol.

In states like Wisconsin, which employs 100,000 full-time and part-time nurses, that’s the equivalent of 10,000 or more RNs, LPNs, and other nursing professionals.

Sadly, it’s not until a major incident occurs — such as a nurse’s drug overdose or a clinician’s arrest and imprisonment for diverting drugs — that the issue of substance use among healthcare professionals, and the concurrent issue of healthcare diversion, receives attention.

By then, it’s often too late. Not only are patients and communities impacted by drug diversion on the part of nurses and other clinical professionals, but nurses themselves are impacted in immeasurable ways. I can say these things are true because of my own experience with drug diversion while employed as a nurse, which led to me serving a four-month jail sentence and losing the only career I had ever known.

My Story, Part of a Silent Epidemic

My story begins when I entered college in 1989. Away from home for the first time, I drank heavily with my friends. I loved the feeling of confidence that I felt while under the influence of alcohol.

During the early years of my career, I managed to keep it together, I was a young, single, mother—having gotten pregnant in my 2nd to last year of college—and I patted myself on the back for being the kind of mom who drank only after I put my daughter to bed. I was prescribed Percocet in 1997 after a surgical procedure. From that point forward, painkillers were my drug of choice. They eased my stress and anxiety, without the byproducts of alcohol. By 2000, I started stealing waste medications from the emergency room where I was working. I’d always rationalize my actions, telling myself “This will be the last time.” It never was.

I lost my nursing job and nursing license in the summer of 2004 because my employers discovered what I was doing. I managed to get a new job at a physician’s office as a secretary three months later. It wasn’t long before I started calling in prescriptions for myself. On January 18, 2005, my luck ran out when I was finally caught, arrested, and incarcerated for drug diversion. I did get sober after that.

In 2007 I petitioned the board of nursing for reinstatement of my nursing license, which they agreed to as long as I followed the requirements of their monitoring program. I did, and after 5 years was given full reinstatement of my nursing license. It was an incredibly tough program and I had no idea there were over 300 other nurses in the same program, we had no way to talk to each other. In some of the work I do today, I learned other states offer peer support programs for nurses with substance use issues and/or who are going through a monitoring program. I found that amazing and decided to start one here in Wisconsin. In September 2021, the Wisconsin Peer Alliance for Nurses (WisPAN) was launched and we have
been supporting nurses ever since.

Today I’m hoping to help nurses with similar substance use issues get help early so they can avoid the devastating consequences of drug diversion.

Kristin Waite-Labott BSN, RN, CARN, CPRC
Founder and President WisPAN
414-376-7002
https://wipeeralliance.org/
Book: http://www.unlikelyaddict.com/