IMPAIRED NURSES: A DISCOURAGING PHENOMENON
Nurses who are impaired because of the misuse of chemical substances, both alcohol and narcotic drugs, are no longer an isolated phenomenon. Almost one-half of active registered nurses report having experiences with one or more impaired nurse coworkers over a 12-month period. Impaired nurses are threats to patients, health care institutions, the health care system, the profession of nursing, and to themselves. Several states have established structured programs to deal with the problem, although none of these programs has reported sufficient levels of success to serve as a model for other states. In the mid-1990s, the problem of impaired nurses is growing more serious, and definitive strategies to deal with the phenomenon remain in developmental stages.
This research provides an overview of the phenomenon of the impaired nurse. The toll exacted by chemical substance abuse on the American society and on individuals within the society in both social and economic contexts is both appalling and enormous. Governments in the United States commit an enormous amount of public resources--financial, human, and physical--to fighting the country's substance abuse problem. In spite of all of these efforts, and in the face of claims of great success by the Drug Enforcement Agency, however, the substance abuse problem appears to be intractable. Unfortunately, the problem now has rooted itself in the nursing profession.
This overview of the phenomenon of the impaired nurse begins with a consideration of the problem in an historical context. Implications of the problem for the profession of nursing are then discussed, as is the impact of the impaired nurse phenomenon on the health care delivery system. The social, cultural, economic, and political factors that influence the problem are then reviewed. That review is followed by a consideration of the implications of the impaired nurse proble...