Category: Addictions

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  • 89. Case: Who Has a Right to Know?

    Kevin is a14-year-old admitted to hospital with persistent headache, muscle spasms, tremors, significant motor impairment, fever, cough and symptoms of liver damage. A diagnosis of lipoid pneumonia has been made and his clinicians are very suspicious that he has been inhaling nitrite compounds. Eventually they are able to confirm this when one of the team…

    View Case Study: 89. Case: Who Has a Right to Know?

  • 58. Case: Harm Reduction

    Medical Officers of Health from British Colombia, Nova Scotia, and Saskatchewan have written to advocate for emphasizing harm reduction in the approach to cannabis and other illegal drugs (including possible legalization). “Evidence-based drug treatment programs are cost effective, and significant benefits should be derived, at both individual and societal levels, through an increase in scale.…

    View Case Study: 58. Case: Harm Reduction

  • 54. Case: Professional Role

    While doing a weekday home visit to an elderly patient, a VON nurse in a small community finds the patient’s son at home. The patient has mentioned that her son teaches at the local elementary school, but he has never been present during any of the nurse’s previous visits to the house. On a weekday…

    View Case Study: 54. Case: Professional Role

  • 51. Case: Confidentiality and Privacy

    Joanne Baker, a nurse practitioner in a small community, prescribed a partial opiate agonist to a young man, Brian, for treatment of prescription opiate dependence. Brian is talented and plays on the same soccer team as Joanne’s son. Three weeks later, Brian is found unresponsive after an overdose of opiates, requiring intubations and medical evacuation…

    View Case Study: 51. Case: Confidentiality and Privacy

  • 15. Case: Acceptable Judgement?

    Sara Thornton, an unemployed 19-year old woman, lives with her 28 year old sister, Fran, and Fran’s boyfriend, Alan. Both sisters were diagnosed with bipolar I disorder in their mid-adolescence. They are both estranged from their alcoholic mother, the only living parent. Fran has learned to manage her illness reasonably well through lifestyle changes, participation…

    View Case Study: 15. Case: Acceptable Judgement?

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