FLORIDA — One in 10 Florida nurses have faced a substance abuse problem--that's according to the director of a program designed to help nurses kick their addictions.
9 Investigates has been looking into substance abuse by medical professionals for months.
State records show several Central Florida nurses have been accused of using their position to illegally get a hold of prescription drugs.
Those nurses have been disciplined by the state and they are required to go through what's called the Intervention Project for Nurses, or IPN.
The organization currently has 1,400 nurses in the program.
The director said there are 350,000 nurses statewide, with most of them working in Florida hospitals, and about 10 percent of them have faced a substance abuse problem.
According to IPN, most of the nurses in the program are there voluntarily, but the program gets about 30 to 40 referrals every other month from the Board of Nursing for disciplinary action.
Last week, a former Florida Hospital registered nurse was suspended after he was accused of taking Fentanyl from the hospital's inventory for personal use.
Earlier this month a registered nurse from Orlando was accused of falsifying a signature on a prescription pad to access antidepressants and a muscle relaxer.
And earlier this year, Channel 9 uncovered that a Daytona Beach adjunct nursing professor was accused of stealing pain meds and needles for his own use. Records show he told investigators he used medications to cope with daily stressors.
The IPN program has a roughly 75 to 80 percent success rate, and less than 10 percent of people who enter IPN are reported to have relapsed after treatment.
IPN officials said alcohol is the most common substance abuse problem they see followed by the abuse of opiates.
Cox Media Group
