Abstract
The purpose of the current study was to determine the attitudes of nursing faculty in institutions of higher learning toward student nurses with chemical dependency problems. A descriptive nationwide mail-out survey of 874 randomly selected faculty from 200 randomly selected nursing programs was conducted. The response rate for the schools was 87.5% and 37% for faculty, resulting in a sample of 324 for data analysis. Subjects completed a 32-item “Perceptions of Student Nurses Impairment Inventory” and a 5-item demographic survey for age, years of teaching experience, years of nursing experience, personal experience with chemically dependent individuals, and religious preference. Frequencies and percentages were calculated to determine the sample's agreement, disagreement, and ambivalence toward the 32 items on the study inventory. Spearman rho correlation coefficients and Chi square analyses were used to determine the influences of the selected demographic variables on subject attitudes toward chemically dependent student nurses. It was concluded that nursing faculty: (1) believe they have a responsibility to help chemically dependent student nurses receive assistance; (2) believe chemical dependency occurs before beginning nursing education; (3) do not believe little can be done to help impaired student nurses; (4) do not believe chemical dependency is caused by personality weakness; (5) are not sure about their own ability to recognize chemical dependency in a student nurse; and (6) believe state boards of nursing have responsibilities to assist, refer, advise, and protect student nurses and applicants for licensure who admit to being chemically dependent.