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Drug use; is this my job? A nurses' role
May Baker, Senior Lecturer, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool

Abstract
This presentation outlines nursing views on drug users who access hospitals within the NHS. It covers both general medical and mental health wards and addresses the stigma attached to drug users and how they are treated when they become "patients". It discusses how drug users perceive their treatment and how nurses care for people who use drugs, sometimes making judgments on non users who deserve treatment against drug users who have brought it on themselves.

The presentation will also highlight areas within mental health whereby staff find it increasingly difficult to manage drug use on wards and how this is addressed. This brings together the task that tutors face in trying to compile a comprehensive teaching programme whereby student nurses will learn about drug use from an historical and humanistic viewpoint. How nurses play an important role in treatment and how they can shape future care by acknowledging that this is their job and that drug users deserve and expect the same care and treatment as any other patient.

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Biography
I am a senior lecturer in mental health and have worked at LJMU for 4 years. I gained my MSc in Addictions in 2003 and worked within the NHS in the drug and alcohol field for 9 years, managing community and detox services. I am an RMN and have been in nursing for 18 years. I have a special interest in dual diagnosis, brief interventions and relapse prevention.