Nurses struggle with workplace violence, burnout and all the things that contribute toward driving people to substance misuse — and that worsens the ongoing shortage of health care providers, Senior Director of Government Affairs at the Georgia Nurses Association Tim Davis said Wednesday during the 2026 Addiction Recovery Awareness Day at the Georgia state Capitol.
“Being able to support them in the way that they need, being able keep a nurse in healthy practice, and caring for Georgia citizens is paramount for us at GNA,” Davis said.
That’s why GNA and addiction recovery advocates are in favor of House Bill 219, sponsored by Rep. Ron Stephens(R-Savannah). If passed, the bill would authorize the creation of professional health programs to monitor and rehabilitate impaired health care professionals under the Georgia Composite Board and Georgia Board of Nursing, including confidential procedures and funding provisions.
Currently, the Georgia Nurses Foundation has a peer assistance program, but nurses only enter after they’ve been ordered to go into that program, Davis said.
“That order then stays with their license for the rest of their career,” he said. “It can be impactful on their ability to get a job, to maintain a job, and it essentially follows them, even though they’ve matriculated into healthy practice, for the rest of their career.”
Greg Gardner, the director for the alcohol use disorder program and a peer recovery coach with Georgia Council for Recovery, said that almost every other state in the union has an alternative to discipline program, but Georgia does not.
“This will allow them to seek the treatment early on,” Gardner said. “It will definitely protect patients and it will help the nursing shortage.”
Under the proposed bill, if a nurse has either a mental health or a substance use disorder, they’re able to self-report. Their license goes into a state of stasis and they aren’t able to practice, Davis said, but they can get the peer support that they need without having that derogatory mark on their license that follows them for the rest of their careers.
Creating an alternative discipline really removes that trepidation that any nurse might have about reporting themselves and getting the help they need, Davis said.
Changes to the law would still require nurses be monitored to ensure public safety.
This story comes to The Current GA through a reporting partnership with GPB News, a non-profit newsroom covering the state of Georgia.
GPB’s Health Reporting is supported by Georgia Health Initiative, a non-partisan, private foundation advancing innovative ideas to help improve the health of Georgians. Learn more at georgiahealthinitiative.org