RELATIONSHIP OF THE RE-ENTRY INTO NURSING PRACTICE OF CHEMICALLY DEPENDENT NURSES TO THE EMPLOYMENT SETTING, TYPE OF REHABILITATION, AND PERCEPTIONS OF IMPAIRMENT (SUBSTANCE ABUSE).
Contributors: Columbia University. Teachers College.
Published: 1989
Number of pages: 159
Subjects: Psychology, General.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The societal acceptance of drug use affects the nursing profession when 75,000 nurses are reported to be chemically impaired. There is a need to identify whether there is a relationship among the successful or unsuccessful employment re-entry of nurses in recovery, the types of rehabilitation, the employment setting, and the perceptions of impairment.

This descriptive study (1) utilized Watson's Human Science and Human Care Theory as the theoretical perspective for the conceptual framework, (2) utilized the Chemical Dependency Inventory (CDI) to determine demographic variables and self-reported perceptions of items important to the recovery of the chemically dependent nurse, (3) compared, by use of the Chi Square statistic and frequency distribution, the relationship of the variables, length of time in recovery, the nurses' perception of the expectation of employers of the nurse in recovery, and the functions of recovery as they relate to the practice setting, family support, peer support, impaired nurses' groups, and regular attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and (4) examined all written comments to elicit relationships to human care, continued recovery, employment in nursing practice, and the nurses' perceptions of impairment.

There were indications that professional and personal ethics may have been violated but the nurses' did not choose to perceive their responsibility for behaviors that may have been harmful to others.

Although the sample of 43 chemically dependent nurses does not allow for generalization beyond the nurses selected for the study, two important issues emerged, (1) transpersonal nursing does provide a framework for chemically dependent nurses, as a moral ideal, demonstrated by the importance of human relationships identified at work, home, and therapy and (2) the urgent need for future study in the areas of gender relationships to chemical dependency in nursing, the effect of Narcotics Anonymous/Alcoholics Anonymous on recovery, and the influence of addictions education programs in schools and facilities.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-12, Section: B, page: 5869.

Thesis (ED.D.)--COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TEACHERS COLLEGE, 1989.

School code: 0055.