CHARACTERISTICS OF CHEMICALLY DEPENDENT NURSES IN A LARGE METROPOLITAN AREA IN THE STATE OF TEXAS.
Contributors: University of Houston.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 150
Subjects: Education, Health.
Description: The problem of drug abuse among professional nurses was, until recently, a closely guarded and suppressed secret (Green, 1985). Today it is the number one problem affecting professional nursing.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the following research question: Are personality and demographic characteristics significantly different for chemically dependent nurses in support groups and non-chemically dependent nurses in a large metropolitan area in the State of Texas?.

The study included 66 chemically dependent and 128 non-chemically dependent professional nurses in the State of Texas who returned the questionnaire. The questionnaire included a demographic section and a personality questionnaire, Cattell's 16 PF.

Hotelling's T('2) was found to be significant at the p 0.05 level for Cattell's 16 PF between the two groups. Discriminant function analysis was significant at p .05 level for five of the personality characteristics measured by the 16 PF indicating that the chemically dependent nurses were less emotional stability, more assertive, less conscientious, had an undisciplined self-conflict, and had higher levels of anxiety. Demographic characteristics were assessed by utilizing a Chi square statistic. The following were found to be significant at the p .05 level: initial and advanced education, shift worked, consideration of suicide, licensure, history of family dependency, and history of childhood illnesses.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-11, Section: A, page: 3989.

Thesis (ED.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON, 1986.

School code: 0087.