Despite its lack of conceptual clarity and uniform definition, the term drug‐seeking is used frequently by nurses from a variety of practice environments. The drugs patients are referred to as seeking are often pain medications. This is important because nursing has widely adopted a patient‐centric definition of pain. Nursing also has a robust ethical code that places high value on human dignity and nurses’ role in patient advocacy. A review of literature was conducted with the aims of describing whether/how the (...) term drug‐seeking has changed over time and to determine whether the use of the term in nursing literature is consistent with nursing values. Use of the term has shifted from objective counts of patient requests for medication to a confusing mixture of observable patient behavior and subjective interpretations of patient motivation. Its use is not consistent with nursing values. It is, in fact, a good illustration of stigmatization in nursing. Stigmatization is contrary to nursing values. Nurses in practice, research, education, authors, reviewers, and editors all have a role in ending this stigmatization. (shrink)

Stigmatization of patients exists in nursing and results in less than optimal nursing care and poor patient outcomes. It is also a violation of our code of ethics. In order to eliminate stigmatization from nursing practice, it is necessary to understand how it develops. Two possible theoretical pathways are proposed to explain the development of stigmatization in nursing. These pathways are informed by a conceptual understanding of stigma and theories of professional socialization, professional formation, symbolic interactionism, and social cognitive theory. (...) Re‐labeling and role‐taking and moral disengagement are proposed as two possible processes that may lead to stigmatization of patients. Both proposed pathways have implications on professional socialization, formation, and the development of professional identity. Devoting attention to and reframing normative behavioral expectations, eliminating labeling, developing empathy, focusing on relationships, and cultivating ethical comportment and moral maturity during nursing formation may reduce the stigmatization of patients by nurses. (shrink)