Behaviors of peers and supervisors as perceived by impaired nurse colleagues: a descriptive study

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Publication Type thesis
School or College College of Nursing
Department Nursing
Author Hardy, Connie H.
Title Behaviors of peers and supervisors as perceived by impaired nurse colleagues: a descriptive study
Date 1987-08
Description The purposes of this study were (a) to describe the perceived behaviors of supervisors and peers toward a group of recovering impaired nursing during their period of addiction, (b) to describe behaviors impaired nurses felt might have been helpful in facilitation recovery, and (c) to compare the perceived behavior to the profession's stated responsibilities to protect the public from incompetent nursing care and to assist the impaired nurse colleague toward restoration of health. Through the use of indepth interviews which were part of a larger study, 21 impaired nurses provided descriptions of the perceived behaviors of colleagues toward them. From the perspective of their own personal experience, impaired nurses identified the behaviors that were nonhelpful, that is, that allowed the addictive process to continue. Group dynamics of staff members sometimes evolved into enabling responses which were perceived to be an impediment to the recovery process. The nurses also described behaviors that were perceived as supportive and facilitative of treatment and offered suggestions related to behavior that might have been helpful in assisting them to prevent, recognize, and seek treatment for their addictive illness. The preponderance of perceived nonhelpful responses indicated a potential problem in the implementation of an ethical code into day-by-day behaviors of nurses confronting this particular ethical dilemma. As nurses described their unique experiences with the complex phenomenon of addiction and subsequent experiences with theirs peers and supervisor, information was generated to assist the profession and individual nurses to provide intervention reflective of the profession's commitment to quality patient care and humanistic concern for impaired colleagues.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Interpersonal Relations; Rehabilitation; Social Perception; Adaptation, Psychological; Professional Impairment
Subject MESH Nursing Staff; Substance-Related Disorders
Dissertation Institution University of Utah
Dissertation Name MS
Language eng
Relation is Version of Digital reproduction of "Behaviors of peers and supervisors as perceived by impaired nurse colleagues: a descriptive study". Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library. Print version of "Behaviors of peers and supervisors as perceived by impaired nurse colleagues: a descriptive study." available at J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collection. RT 2.5 1987 H37.
Rights Management © Connie H. Hardy.
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 943,419 bytes
Identifier undthes,4102
Source Original: University of Utah Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library (no longer available)
Master File Extent 943,462 bytes
ARK ark:/87278/s6m32xgb
Setname ir_etd
ID 190400
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6m32xgb