¶ … Knowledge, and Wisdom Continuum Nursing

The selected topic is drug abuse amongst teenagers. The prevalence of drug abuse amongst teenagers has been on the rise over the past decade. The increase is attributed to many factors, but it mostly has to do with the ease of access, peer pressure, and lack of knowledge on the effects of drugs. Most teenagers do not intend to abuse drugs, they are only experimenting with the drugs, but they end up becoming addicted. This causes huge problems for them later on in life when they try to quit. The problems associated with drug abuse not only have to do with addiction, but teenagers are faced with other health problems like STDs, stroke, cancer, lung disease, and mental disorders. These are all problems that a person can avoid if they stay away from drugs. STDs will mostly be transmitted from one addict to another when they share needles or syringes. Mental disorders are closely linked to drug abuse. Depression, anxiety, or schizophrenia are conditions that most drug addicts face. Understanding the impact that drug abuse could have on an individual is vital. Teenagers should be educated and made aware of the effects of party drugs. Most teenagers do not start as drug addicts they begin with party drugs, which lead them to hard drugs and addiction.

To establish the prevalence, reasons for drug abuse, and solutions one would need to use the four steps of data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. Working through the four steps a person would manage to gather data that would assist them to translate and make sense of the problem of drug abuse. One has to move successively through the steps in order for them to achieve wisdom and make recommendations.

Researching the question

Data is normally raw, and it makes no sense. Data has no significance apart from the fact that it exists. It can be in any form. Data can only be used to...

In any research, the researcher will start by gathering data, which would not make any sense or sometimes might be unusable. The data gathered for the research question would allow the researcher to establish how prevalent the problem of drugs is amongst teenagers. Data would only be used to offer further insights into the problem. Data would not be organized (McGonigle, McGonigle, & Mastrian, 2011), which would make it hard to comprehend and use as is. The next step would involve processing the data. Once the data is processed, it produces information. Information is basically data that has been interpreted, structured, or organized. Information would make more sense than data, but it would still not offer the whole picture. Information would allow a person to peruse through the data and determine how widespread or how many teenagers are abusing drugs in an area. This is beneficial and would allow the nurse to establish or determine whom to target. The areas with high numbers would indicate where most effort should be placed. Knowledge is obtained from the information (Bernstein, 2011). Knowledge is the capability to identify relationships from the presented information. A person can determine that the prevalence of drugs in certain areas has to do with the number of gangs or traffickers in that area. This information would only be obtained after a connection has been made. The connections should not necessarily be derived from the data collected, but rather one would use what they know regarding the location. Coming up with a solution to tackle the problem is wisdom. The nurse should incorporate all they know and the information they have gathered in order to identify a workable solution.
The search terms to use when carrying out the research include drug abuse, teenage drug abuse, commonly abused drugs, drug abuse health problems, and prevalence of…