CHIEF NURSE EXECUTIVES' RESPONSES TO CHEMICALLY-DEPENDENT NURSES.
Contributors: University Of Illinois At Chicago, Health Sciences Center.
Published: 1989
Number of pages: 263
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Health Care Management.
Description: Chief nurse executives (CNEs) must often make decisions about nurses whose professional functioning is impaired by the use of alcohol and/or other drugs. Chemical dependency among nurses has only recently begun to be acknowledged and studied. Therefore, few institutions have policies to guide response to chemically dependent nurses, and many CNEs lack sufficient experience or information to assist them in deciding how to respond.

This descriptive-correlational study used survey research methods to explore the influence of personal and institutional factors on CNEs' responses to chemically dependent nurses. An instrument developed by the investigator was mailed to all CNEs in acute care inpatient health care facilities in a large midwestern state, with a response rate of 73%, or 195 completed questionnaires.

Descriptive statistics summarized all variables. Relationships between variables were explored using Pearson's correlations and chi-square. Discriminant function analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to explore the relationships between personal and institutional factors and CNEs' responses.

The findings indicate that CNEs respond differently to alcohol- and drug-dependent nurses: CNEs terminated drug-dependent nurses more frequently than alcohol-dependent nurses, particularly when employment was terminated immediately. In addition, CNEs also made more supportive and fewer sanctioning responses to alcohol-dependent nurses than to drug-dependent nurses. Personal and institutional factors accounted for more variance in CNEs' support responses than in CNEs' sanction responses. Institutional factors accounted for more variance than personal factors in CNEs' support responses to both alcohol- and drug-dependent nurses. Chief nurse executives from institutions with employee assistance programs were more likely to maintain employment of alcohol-dependent nurses and to make more supportive responses to both alcohol- and drug-dependent nurses. The CNEs from institutions with written policies were more likely to maintain the employment of drug-dependent nurses. The CNEs from institutions that employed recovering alcohol- and/or drug-dependent nurses were less likely to terminate the employment of and reported greater support responses to both alcohol- and drug-dependent nurses. More informed CNEs reported more experience with and more support responses to alcohol- and drug-dependent nurses.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-01, Section: B, page: 0145.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO, HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER, 1989.

School code: 0806.