New SMART Recovery® Motivational Guide and Workbook for Recovering Healthcare Professionals

Sept. 27, 2011 - PRLog -- The expectation in healthcare is that providers are immune to personal drug or alcohol problems. Intolerance among professionals contributes to denial. Until a drug or alcohol problem is obvious, the impaired professional is more likely than non-healthcare professionals to avoid seeking help.

To meet the needs of healthcare professionals, SMART Recovery® has announced a new publication, “Motivational Guide and Workbook for Recovering Healthcare Professionals” authored by Maria Elsa Rodriguez, DNP, ACNS-BC.  Maria has worked as an acute care adult health nurse for 21 years and as a nurse educator for 8 years. She found it a paradox that healthcare professionals who are in recovery have a lack of resources available that are specifically focused to their needs. With this observation, she developed this new Workbook.

In 2008, 10 million persons aged 12 years or older reported driving under the influence of illicit drugs during the prior year. Among those millions who daily abuse drugs or alcohol, thousands are physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals whose use affects and threatens their lives, as well as the lives of others. The resulting drug or alcohol impairment can have devastating effects on their patients who trust healthcare providers to be focused and conscientious while caring for them.  Healthcare professionals have a unique ability to respond to medical challenges and pressures on behalf of others. This Workbook helps apply that care and response by the healthcare professional to him or herself.

Chapter topics include: Motivation; The Prevalence of Addiction in Healthcare Providers (physicians, nurses, psychologists, pharmacists and dentists); Information About SMART Recovery; The Brain, Drugs, & Motivation;  An Overview of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy; The Transtheoretical Model of Change; Self-Efficacy; Self-Esteem and Self-Worth; Locus of Control; Resilience; Coping Skills for Emotions & Behaviors; and an Appendix reviewing The Background and History of Narcotic & Alcohol Use in the United States.  A number of interactive activities are included throughout the Workbook.

The Workbook can be ordered via the SMART Recovery Online Bookstore: www.smartrecovery.org. 80 pages, $12.95, © 2011.

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