PUNISHMENT FOR ADDICTION NO SOLUTION: MD

Canada's leading expert on addicted health-care workers calls
Manitoba's approach to the issue "shocking" and said punishing people
struggling with an illness doesn't solve anything.

Dr. Graeme Cunningham, director of addictions at Homewood Health
Centre in Guelph, Ont., said Manitoba nurses who are reported to
nursing authorities should be offered confidential treatment. He said
subjecting them to embarrassing penalties -- like urine tests and
publicizing their illness -- only discourages others from seeking help.

"They're turning off a bunch of nurses who are stealing
tranquillizers, injecting narcotics and drinking themselves silly at
night," Cunningham said. "They're scaring the hell out of them and
driving them even more underground."

Cunningham, a former registrar with Ontario's College of Physicians
and Surgeons, worked to change how addiction issues were handled in
the province and said addicted nurses are no longer disciplined in
Ontario. He said U.S. researchers have shown that drug-addicted nurses
are extremely high-functioning and tend to work in chaotic areas,
including ERs, intensive-care units and operating rooms.

"If you're disciplining someone who's ill, all you're getting is an
ill, angry nurse," Cunningham said. "Nothing's changed.