An undergraduate nurse’s experience of patients with drug-seeking behaviours

There is a global rise in the misuse of both legal and illegal drugs that has been correlated with an increase in the number of Emergency Department (ED) presentations (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2016). Of concern, are reports that over one-third of ED presentations in New South Wales, Australia are related to the misuse of drugs and alcohol requiring some form of nursing intervention (Butler et al. 2016). This subgroup of patients are difficult to manage due to the complexities of their needs and depend greatly on ED healthcare (Palepu et al. 2001; Tait et al. 2002; Krenske et al. 2004). During an ED placement as an undergraduate nursing student, I experienced frequent encounters with patients requesting pain relief. There were several occasions when the registered nurse (RN) dismissed the patient’s request for pain relief, justifying this with the rationale that the patient was drug-seeking and not in true pain. When trying to ascertain and learn how the RNs decision making had come to this conclusion, they struggled to provide rationale.