I have more of a personal experience with recovering substance use individuals rather than a working experience. I lack professional knowledge regarding how to care for this population. Personally, I believe there is a gap in the nursing curriculum regarding care for a recovering addict. I want to join this partnership in hopes that it will expand my knowledge and awareness around caring for this specific community. Adult health 2 clinical gave me the opportunity to work with some individuals in the population. I encountered multiple patients with endocarditis or patients whom I administered suboxone to help maintain their recovery. This clinical opened my eyes to how big this population is and although a nurse may not choose to be a recovery nurse, nurses are bound to come across people of this population. As a nursing student I did work with nurses who made bias comments but my care for the patient did not change. I was slightly offended by the comments being made being that I have some personal experience with this population. I found myself to have more sympathy when caring for that specific patient. 

My first goal is to learn various ways to communicate and provide therapeutic communication to this population. My experience at clinical showed me that most people do not know the best way to communicate with this population. My second goal is to learn different techniques to help them during triggering moments such as when in the hospital surrounded by multiple triggers. A lot of times recovering addicts are looked at in a bad lens, as a nurse I want to be able to approach my patient with techniques and therapeutic communication that will make them feel comfortable. Although I am excited for this experience, I am nervous I will say the wrong thing and trigger an individual. I am ready to open my ears and hear people’s various stories. Programs and recovery centers are a tremendous help to this population, and I am excited to learn. I feel like this experience will stick with me and be a part of making me a well-rounded nurse in the future. Other programs out in the Portland community include libertyBay recovery center, Milestone recovery, Casco Bay recovery, Recovery associates, Groups recovery together, etc. Groups recover together has a great website that also includes different people’s stories and resources such as “4 ways to stay grounded in recover”. I thought this was special for this community, when opening the website seeing that might give them the little encouragement they need. This recovery center has helped 23,000 members and have 89% of members stay clean per week. This is going to be a great opportunity to learn but also get out into the community.