Personal statement on how to properly improve addiction outcomes

As a nurse, for nearly 20 years, I have demonstrated my passion for helping others in their time of need. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced this commitment to saving the lives of others who require the assistance of competent healthcare professionals. The pandemic has only exacerbated the need of selfless healthcare workers who often to the detriment of their own families, look to care for others. Over my nearly two decades within the profession I have seen first-hand, how important high quality of care is to patient outcomes. One such area I have become particularly passionate about is that of substance abuse addiction. Here, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has placed an unprecedented amount of stress of individuals and their families. Healthcare workers are continually putting their lives and families lives in danger, patients are dealing with significant job loss and lack of income, children are dealing with lack of education as schools close, and so forth. All of these elements can often coalesce to create a large burden on individuals within society. This pressure ultimately culminates into a “breaking point” in which individuals turn to substances to help quell or mitigate the influences of dramatic life changes. Unfortunately, the current healthcare infrastructure is not equipped to properly provide addiction care to those who need it most. As a result, a large portion of my time has been dedicated to reforming the current system related to addiction treatment by providing much more comprehensive care to patients.

To properly lead this change, I will rely heavily on my nearly two decades of leadership experiencing within the healthcare profession. For over a decade, I was a charge nurse supervisor at Hazard Health and Rehab Center. Here, my responsibilities included supervising other charge nurses and nurse aids. I was also responsible for ensuring that all medical procedures and policies where adhered to. These policies ranged from more routine tasks such as a scheduling, admission and discharges to much more life-threatening procedures such as wound care. This leadership experience was instrumental in developing the qualities required to help enact reform in the addiction treatment segment. Namely, the ability to direct and motivate others effectively, to galvanize others around a central concept of theme, and to direct resources to the highest and best use possible. All of these attributes where honed during my over 10 years as a charge nurse supervisor.

This decade which spanned from 2004 to 2014 was a highly contentious period within the industry. Here, then President Obama was looking to enact the Affordable Health Care Act to help ultimately lower the cost of healthcare by mandating insurance. This was a unprecedented period due to the uncertainty surrounding the act and how it would be implemented throughout the healthcare system. Through my leadership, I was able to help implement many of the changes mandated by the Affordable Care Act, while also ensuring high quality care standards for patients. In addition, the experience helped to bolster my abilities related to change management and how to quickly shift policies and procedures to help improve patient outcomes overall. This experience will ultimately be leveraged to help improve patient outcomes as it relates to addiction treatments.

After my leadership experience at Hazard Health and Rehab Center, I undertook a leadership position with Hickory Hill Recovery Center as an Intake Coordinator. This position would eventually provide new opportunities as an SOS coordinator and PREA investigator as well. As a much small operation, I was tasked with multiple leadership positions throughout my tenure with the organization. These responsibilities due to the organizations small size, where often multi-faceted require strong time-management skills. Within the organization, I was responsibility for typical nursing activities and corresponding supervision duties. In addition, I was also responsible for billing, accounting and other back office functions. Finally, I was also charged with monitoring SOS clients and monitors. These often-conflicting roles honed my leadership skills further through proper time management and resource management. Again, these attributes can be used to help improve patient outcomes as it relates to proper addiction treatment.

Finally, my current role is that of a Nurse supervisor at Addiction Recovery Care. This current role has sparked my interest in the care of patients suffering from addiction and how to improve outcomes for them. This is a critical element for society as substance abuse, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, costs society $740 billion annually. The large majority of this amount is related to tobacco, alcohol, and opioid abuse. As a result the interpersonal team that I will use to implement the change will have a variety of backgrounds including finance, accounting, sales, academicians and healthcare. This diversity of team composition is required to help improve the odds of the implementation of the change. Finance and accounting for example can help explain the financial ramification of the change and how it can ultimately help improve not out the outcomes of the patient but also the profitability of healthcare organizations overall. Nursing team members can provide support as to how the implementation will be handled from a healthcare perspective. Academicians can propose new and unique changes that are heavily based on evidence and academically backed research. This combination of talent can be leveraged to help improve the clinical experience of patients across their entire lifespan. It can also help lower healthcare and treatment costs while simultaneously improving patient outcomes.