NR449 RUA Topic Search Strategy: Impaired Nurses

Impaired NursesNameInstitutional AffiliationDate
Our clinical question was based on the topic of impaired nurses. Impaired nurses are the ones who provide patient care while they are impaired by the drugs or due to addiction. Most of the people believe that the nurses are immune from addiction since they are educated, and they are the ones who provide health care to the patients at the hospital. However, the nurses always handle drugs and since they are familiar with the medications, they may develop substance use disorder. Recently, substance abuse is one of the major factors that is threatening safe nursing practices. Substance abuse can have numerous consequences on the health of the nurse and the delivery of the duty of the nurse to the patients.
Substance use disorder is characterized by the use of chemicals even though one is aware of the adverse effects of the chemicals. The compulsive use cycle may have periods where the use is controlled, but it is normally followed by at least one episode of the out – of control use which may lead to adverse effects on the health of an individual CITATION Kat11 \l 1033 (Kathy & Stephanie, 2011). If the condition is left untreated, substance abuse disorder can risk the life of a person and also the safety of the patients. In our paper, we are going to focus on the causes of the rising number of impaired nurses and the ways through which the nurses can be helped to access help that will enable them to do away with the problem.
As a way of finding the rising number of impaired nurses, we had to look at the statistics that are associated with drug and substance abuse. The statistics will help us to understand the consequences that are associated with impaired nurses. According to a report that was released in the year 2014 by the Kentucky Medical Examiner, an increasing number of accidents that were the cause of the rising number of death cases. Out of the total number of deaths that were caused by accidents, 59.29% were drug related. Of the total number of drug-related deaths, 77.86% were accidental CITATION Smi14 \l 1033 (Smith, 2014). The statistics also showed that the nurses were also affected by drug substance abuse. The nurses also buy into the myth that they should be able to handle their substance use disorder sinc...