If you are concerned about a colleague at work, and you have evidence of violations of the NPA, as a nurse, you are required to file a complaint against the license of the nurse in question. This is the quickest and best way to intervene with a chemically dependent colleague. It is also the way 90% of the nurses enter the Diversion Program. When a complaint alleging issues with drugs or alcohol is received in the Board of Nursing office, that nurse is automatically sent a letter offering him/her admission into the DP. Most nurses who do have issues with drugs or alcohol are relieved to be able to begin to address these issues directly, and they do request admission into the DP. If a nurse does not request admission into the DP, then the complaint would go through the normal disciplinary channels. If a nurse is not chemically dependent, then they would not be eligible for admission into the Diversion Program.

If there is no clear violation of the NPA, yet there are behavioral or work place concerns, then reporting these concerns to a supervisor is important. Particularly when there is a pattern of concerns, the documentation of all incidents is important to establish. The issues could then be addressed with the nurse. Because of the heavy stigma that continues to be attached to chemical dependency and issues with addiction, people in general and nurses in particular, may find it difficult to admit to these problems. However, if everyone who was concerned about an individual would address his or her concerns with that individual, it would be more and more difficult to continue to deny there is a problem.