Bridge to recovery. Stigmatized and isolated, the impaired nurse needs your help

Abstract

Serious recognition, long overdue, is now being given to the occurrence and damaging effects of alcohol and drug use and other emotionally-based problems among health care professionals. The problem is one which affects not only the lives and careers of these individuals, but which also has far-reaching social and economic consequences. The existing data regarding the prevalence of impairment among nurses are limited and inconclusive. Most estimates are based upon the known scope of addiction and psychological dysfunction in the general public, or upon the population of nurses who have sought treatment or been subject to state board disciplinary action. It is feared that these estimates woefully underestimate the scope of the problem. Given that there are many more questions than answers to the problem of nursing impairment, what is the responsibility of the profession towards its impaired members? The problems that face the impaired nurse are overviewed. From recent surveys it can be concluded that the profession has started to grapple with the problem. A framework of an impaired nurse program is discussed in this paper.