The concept for The International Network ("TINN") of Nurses Interested in Alcohol, Tobacco and Drug Misuse was developed in April, 1998 following a meeting among members of the Association of Nurses in Substance Abuse (ANSA-UK) and the National Nurses Society on Addictions (NNSA-USA). This meeting took place at the 14th annual conference of ANSA in Nottingham, England. The Chair of ANSA presented a paper which described a model of international networking for nurses working in the field of addiction and related health and social care (Clancy, 1998). The ideas from this presentation, plus a paper on the history and achievements of NNSA, (Murphy-Parker, 1998) resulted in discussion leading to the development of collaborative activities between these two nursing organisations.

In the autumn of 1998, two members of ANSA were invited to attend NNSA's 24th Annual Conference in Colorado Springs, Colorado (Clancy & Murphy-Parker, 1999). These members, Raj Boyjoonauth and Patrick Coyne, both well-respected and active members of ANSA made a number of positive connections among their American colleagues. At this conference, during NNSA's annual business meeting, the President of NNSA asked the involved members of the developing network to come forward and give a brief talk with an update regarding the collaborative possibilities.

During the discussion at the NNSA business meeting, it was determined that the first activity together would be to encourage addiction nurses from both nursing organisations to submit individual and joint papers to the upcoming International Council of Nurses (ICN) Centennial Conference to be held in London, 1999. The reason for this was based on the experience that Raj Boyjoonauth had when he attended the previous 21st Quadrennial Congress of the ICN in Vancouver, 1997. At the time, Mr. Boyjoonauth looked forward to the opportunity of meeting other addictions nursing colleagues from around the globe; to share and to learn about practice in addictions nursing in different countries. Mr. Boyjoonauth, however, was disappointed when he discovered that there were no papers on substance misuse issues on the 1997 ICN Program, and, in fact, very few papers presented on mental health issues (Boyjoonauth, 1997).

It was this observation that became the incentive to encourage nurses from ANSA and NNSA to submit abstracts for presentation of issues regarding substance misuse at the upcoming 1999 ICN. The hoped for outcome was two-fold; to increase awareness to the international nursing community that the role of millions of professional registered nurses, has long been recognised as imperative in preventing and minimizing the health and social consequences resulting from this pandemic (Sheehan, 1992); second, to increase visibility and growth of the developing international network of nurses working in the area of addictions.

The first meeting of "TINN" took place on June 28th, 1999 at the International Council of Nurses Centennial Conference. From this meeting, 10 initiatives were developed. These initiatives are:

1. Education of substance misuse and addictions is missing and insufficient in nursing school curricula and a resolution for improvement needs to be recognised by the ICN, WHO and UN.
   
   
2. Humane, pioneering Peer Assistance and Advocacy Programs must be developed for all of our nursing colleagues who are misusing substances.
   
   
3. International Guidelines, for service development and clinical care, should be developed for nurses working in the field.
   
   
4. Nursing theories and models must be developed for nurses work in the area of substance misuse. These theories and models should be developed in a culturally sensitive manner.
   
   
5. Nurses must be able to communicate with each other. They need to fully utilise new computer technologies. The ICN Web-Page should serve as the entrance to Addictions and Substance Misuse Organizations and services world-wide.
   
   
6. Professional partnerships between nurses and other professions and agencies should be collaborative and based on UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
   
   
7. All nurses have a role in health promotion and preventing the harm associated with alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. Leaders, clinicians, educators, and researchers in nursing need to ensure that tobacco, alcohol and misuse of other drugs are fully integrated into their strategic and operational plans.
   
   
8. Nurses need to explain to communities and individuals that treatment does work. Treatment services need to be available to all populations as a human right.
   
   
9. Workers are entitled to fair terms and conditions, which promote and maintain their health and well being, including employee assistance programs as a right for all.
   
   
10. A Two day conference will be organised for nurses interested in addictions in substance misuse proceeding the next ICN conference to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, on the 8th & 9th of June 2001

The 10th initiative from the London meeting, a conference at the Copenhagen ICN in June, 2001, became a reality and was planned entirely among interested nurses via electronic mail. Once again, the ICN Organisers were most helpful in facilitating the logistics of our planned conference and were instrumental with helping advertise the upcoming conference on the ICN website. Although, there were some last minute changes to the actual program, an announcement of the Copenhagen Conference and Conference Presentations can be found on the web: http://www.icn.ch/innconf_01program.htm.

References

Boyjoonauth, R. (1997). Where To With The ICN: A Report from the ICN Congress. Association of Nurses in Substance Abuse Journal Bulletin, 17 Pg. 1

Clancy, C. (1998). International Networking: A Model for Addictions Nursing. Paper presented at the Association of Nurses in Substance Abuse, 14th Annual Conference; Nottingham, England, April 15th, 1998.

Clancy, C. & Murphy-Parker, D. (1999). New Faces, New Places, New Opportunities: The National Nurses Society on Addictions Develops Connections with Addictions Nurses and Addictions Nursing Organisations in Other Countries. Journal of Addictions Nursing, 11 (2), pg 89.

Murphy-Parker, D (1998). A New Beginning for International Collaboration: A Description and Report of the 28 Year History of The National Nurses Society on Addictions in the USA. Paper presented at the Association of Nurses in Substance Abuse, 14th Annual Conference; Nottingham, England, April 15th, 1998.

Sheehan, A. (1992). Nurses Respond To Substance Abuse. International Nurses Review, 39 (5), pp 141-44.