HOSPITAL RESPONSES TO CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY IN NURSES: THE EFFECT OF INFORMATION PROCESSING CAPACITY AND LABELING.
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1992
Number of pages: 245
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Health Care Management.
Description: The purpose of this study was to examine how information processing capacity and labeling affect organizational decision making about chemically dependent nurses. Hypotheses were tested that dealt with the relationship between information processing capacity and labeling, and the relationships between information processing capacity, labeling and possible hospital responses to chemically dependent nurses. The hospital responses of interest in this study were referral to treatment, termination of employment, reintegration back into the work place, and hiring of known recovering chemically dependent nurses.

In a nation-wide survey of 110 hospitals, it was found that labeling of chemically dependent nurses is related to the hospitals' responses to chemically dependent nurses. The higher the degree of threat perceived about chemically dependent nurses, the higher the tendency to terminate the employment of these nurses, the lower the tendency to refer to treatment, the lower the tendency to reintegrate back into the work place, and the lower the tendency to hire known recovering chemically dependent nurses.

It was anticipated that information processing capacity would be a predictor of hospital responses to chemically dependent nurses. Although this hypothesis was not supported, two of the information processing capacity variables did have a significant relationship with two of the hospital responses. Professionalization, the number of B.S.N. and higher degree nurses, was related to reintegration, and openness in communication in the hospitals was related to the hiring of known recovering chemically dependent nurses. There was no significant relationship found between information processing capacity and labeling.

The results of this study can provide the administrators in health care organizations with information about how organizations make decisions in response to chemically dependent nurses; decisions that benefit both the organizations and the involved nurses. The findings suggest that organizational decision makers need to understand the process of labeling, what factors are involved in developing labels, and how those labels affect decisions made in the organization. Limitations, strengths, and implications for research and practice are discussed.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-12, Section: B, page: 6227.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1992.

School code: 0227.