Nurse Jackie: The Consummate Drug Addict

What I love about the show Nurse Jackie is how remarkably well they capture the lifestyle of the prescription drug addict: lie layered upon lie, desperate measures to get one more pill, and selfish reactions to anything that threatens her ability to get access to Vicodin, Oxy, or any other painkiller (she isn’t picky, it seems).

Jackie even lies about the fact she’s married, hiding her wedding ring before she enters the hospital – mainly for the benefit of the hospital pharmacist who has essentially become her supplier.  When he confirms the hospital is getting a Pyxis (automated medication system) she goes nuts about how unfair it is – they will have to plug in a code just to get an aspirin or a Motrin!  You know she isn’t really thinking about the Motrin.

Pyxis machines are the bane of the addicted health care worker because there is one thing they do very well – diversion control.  I do think, however, this could result in more stealing of the pain medication meant for a patient (with a placebo slipped in as a substitute).  Face it, addicts are supremely capable of finding a work around no matter what the obstacles.

In this episode Nurse Jackie paws around the top of her home medicine cabinet to find that last Vicodin, only to have it fall down the drain. She chews a piece of gum and sticks it on the end of a toothbrush to try to get it back, but is interrupted by her husband.  She drops the home-made “drug catcher” in her pocket. Later at the hospital she pulls it out, discovers the pill actually did stick to it, and without one second of hesitation, pops it in her mouth right at the nurse’s station.

Nurse Jackie’s ears perked  up when a patient she figured out was withdrawing from opiates tells her, “They are so easy to get on the Internet.”  Oh boy.