Who will write out story? The history of drug and alcohol nursing project 2019
In recognition of International Nurses Day and International Midwives Day 2019 DANA announced an exciting new project to document the history of Drug and Alcohol nursing. Your help is needed!
Why not document the history of nursing in your workplace?
If you have stories to share or if you would be interested in being involved in an expert reference group for this project, please contact Kt Harvey at [email protected]. Kt, a past president of DANA and a NSW DANA member, is steering the project . With 2020 now designated ‘The Year of the Nurse’ it is timely to collect this information about the early days of our profession.
Kt has also put out a challenge to colleagues across Australia and New Zealand.
The first history story: Meet Mitchell Giles
Mitchell Giles is the Chief Executive Officer of ‘Lives Lived Well’, a major Non-Government Organisation that provides support for people in Queensland and New South Wales who have problems with alcohol or drugs or problems with mental health. Prior to this Mitchell was the Manager of ‘Damascus’, a private drug and alcohol treatment centre in the heart of Brisbane.
Read what Mitchell had to say. Click HERE.
If you can add to this story or would like to contribute more information send an email to Kt Harvey at [email protected]
Calling all writers: DANA 2018 Writing Challenge
DANA celebrated International Nurses Day 2018 by inviting up and coming writers to submit their work to the DANA 2018 Writing Challenge.
We wanted stories from AOD nurses, about AOD nursing. We wanted stories that painted a picture of what we do and why we do it.
Every story has been published on this page.
The entries
Small talk Ruby McGrath-Lester
‘I have no friends’. She told me today when she visited the clinic. She laughed as she said it, but we both knew it wasn’t a joke.
She tells me she used to have ‘the best friends’. They had made her ‘cry with nose-snorting laughter’; they had made things ‘a little lighter’. But she had moved interstate for him, they had heard from her less and less, so they had tried less and less. While she and him used more and more….
Read Small talk in full
What we do and why we do it Tim Emerton
I started my career as a medical clerk in the RAAF. I then became an EN then RN and finally a Nurse Practitioner in Alcohol and Other Drugs.
People often state that must be a stressful job. I reply that it’s a really fascinating job and although it can have its stressful moments, it is not on the whole a stressful job once you understand it not your job to “fix” people but to help facilitate their recovery….
Read What we do and why we do it in full
How can you do that job Susan Russell
‘How can you do that job, it must be so depressing’ – said to me by a nurse on more than one occasion.
It has been said enough that I find myself wondering exactly why I have chosen to work in this field for such a long time.
I have had time away to do other work – 4 years running my own business owning and running a plant nursery (they don’t talk back, don’t smell of alcohol or vomit, don’t disappear and turn up again bedraggled and glum)…
Read How can you do that job in full
Drug and Alcohol Nursing. Is that a Thing? Colleen Blums
‘Hi. I bought a hospital. Could you manage the Drug and Alcohol Unit? It was the voice of my friend and colleague.
‘What? No! I’m about to go sailing, for a long time.
“How about until you go?
I was in my new workplace the next Monday. My new work colleagues’ greetings were at best cool as they evaluated the interloper replacing their much loved, long-time manager….
Read Drug and Alcohol Nursing. Is that a Thing in full
Poems: A Megaphone for the Mute and I Have A Name – David Silkoff
In this modern world of the internet
And the electronic information
It’s no surprise that we simply forget
All other forms of communication.
Because its form seems so far out of date
If you’re not online your voice is not heard.
And we so quickly underestimate
The mighty power of the spoken word….
Read Poems in full
Drug and Alcohol Nursing – Hang Wai Lai
Addiction, whether it is of alcohol, substance, gambling or otherwise have been extensively studied and its pathological states have been shown to have various impacts on each domain of health of an individual with addiction. As individuals constitutes the communities which are the foundation and building blocks of societies. The impacts of addiction have on individuals would there impacts on their communities and the societies which they are build upon. Addictions are often viewed as a lifestyle choice rather than a condition or an illness, where it is the individual’s personal choice or free will to abuse substance. …
Read Drug and Alcohol Nursing in full