Critical to this issue of patient care quality and safety is the rising incidence of comorbid drug and alcohol abuse among hospitalized patients. The World Health Organization reported that there were 2 billion alcohol users 185 million drug users worldwide in the general population. Consequently, there has been a substantial rise in the addiction disorders in the hospitalized population with an estimate that 20% to 50% of hospitalized patients manifest addiction disorders. A paucity of research has been conducted on the perceptions of nurses who provide care to hospitalized patients with substance abuse/dependence.With the incidence of illicit substance abuse/dependence on the rise and the presence of unknown addictions being a frequently identified issue in contemporary nursing practice, there exists the need to further explore nurses' perceptions regarding caring for this challenging patient population as systems and processes are developed to support safe and quality care delivery.