title: Enhancing nursing competence with substance abusing clients.
abstract: Alcohol and other drug abuse, major threats to health, pose challenges for nurses in virtually every practice setting. Progress toward increasing nursing competence in the addictions field is being made through the development of practice standards and model curricula and through federal initiatives to increase faculty expertise in this field. The next critical step is to forge creative collaborative links with practice settings, links that assure that requisite learning is reality-based and in step with the future of health care. This article outlines progress toward improving nursing competence in substance abuse and suggests reality-based learning strategies as a future direction for this important goal for nursing education. Two successful models of collaboration between education and practice, designed to augment basic curriculum and improve nursing knowledge, skills and attitudes related to substance abuse, are described.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing Systems and Technology, School of Nursing, University of Texas Houston, Houston Health Science Center 77030, USA.
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Marcus
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Gerace
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Sullivan
mesh_terms: D000436:Alcoholics Anonymous; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000451:nursing*; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003479:Curriculum; D004506:Education, Nursing; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D017145:Models, Educational; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000193:education; D009734:Nursing Faculty Practice; D013192:Staff Development / Q000379:methods*; D016320:Substance Abuse Treatment Centers / Q000458:organization & administration; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000451:nursing*