3 Butler County nurses become fellows in international addiction organization
Marne Bilanich has attended the annual International Nurses Society on Addictions conference for 10-plus years, but this year’s conference was different.
At the 46th annual conference at the end of February in Charleston, S.C., Bilanich was inducted as a Fellow of the International Academy of Addictions Nursing alongside two other Butler County nurses.
To become a fellow, Bilanich had to prove that she works with people going through addiction, which is her main role as nurse manager at VA Butler Healthcare, where she works in the domiciliary.
“I do peer reviews for the journal of Addiction Nursing,” Bilanich said. “I bring in students to learn about addictions in our program here; peer mentoring, I work with new nurses who are going into addiction nursing.”
The International Nurses Society on Addictions was formed in 1975 as the National Nurses Society on Alcoholism — the nursing counterpart to the physician’s group the American Medical Society on Alcoholism. In 2000, the society merged with addiction nursing organizations in the United Kingdom and in Australia and became the International Nurses Society on Addiction.
In addition to Bilanich, five other Butler County nurses attended the conference. Shanea Clancy, president of Clancy Consulting Services, and Rachel Shuster, addiction specialist for Highmark Wholecare, who both work in Butler County, also became fellows in the academy.
Clancy said she spoke at a preconference workshop in 2022 about suicide prevention and mental health, and wanted to become a fellow with the international academy to gain more access to education and resources shared by the other fellows. As an international organization, the academy of addictions nursing helps connect health care professionals working in addiction with one another.
“It's a rigorous process, and not everybody gets it,” Clancy said. “Australia, the U.K., Netherlands, Portugal — they're all forward thinkers in treatment.”
Having access to an international network of health care professionals is also a perk for Bilanich.
“There's a lot of very smart people in this fellowship from all over the world,” Bilanich said. “It's really nice to hear some of the things that they're doing that have positive outcomes on people with addictions in their countries.”
Clancy also said she is happy at how much representation Butler County has at an international conference. She said the conference also helps emphasize how big an issue addiction is across the world, but also that treatment has become a big focus for health care professionals.
“I think for people who are struggling or that kind of patient,” Clancy said, “it reiterates that there are people who have been there who are fellows representing Butler County strongly on a global level to make sure treatment is equitable, affordable and an option.”
Between her work at the VA and her experience attending the annual conference, Bilanich said she has seen trends change not only in addiction substances, but in the way addiction is treated. She said information shared at the conference reflects changing trends in addiction and addiction treatment, even in the U.S., where drugs containing THC are becoming legal in some states.
“When I first started going, opiate addiction was not that big of a factor, heroin was, but it got huge since I was going and now fentanyl is huge,” Bilanich said. “Drugs you can get at a gas station are now being abused. For people with addictions, that could be bad for them.”
Clancy pointed out that more and more nurses are dealing with patients going through addiction just by working in the health care field. She said the conference this year reinforced how big of an influence nurses could have over people going through addiction.
“The main takeaways would be every nurse is an addictions nurse, they just don't know it,” Clancy said. “Addiction is everywhere. Anyone you are taking care of might be going through addiction; (a nurse) might be the one to plant the seed for that person.”
This story was updated at 2 p.m. Thursday, March 14, to reflect the conference was held in Charleston, S.C. and to correct the spelling of Rachel Shuster’s last name.
