Managing the Chemically Dependent Nurse: A Guide to Identification, Intervention, and Retention. - book reviews

Health Care Financing Review, Winter, 1992

Managing the Chemically Dependent Nurse: A Guide to Identification, Intervention, and Retention, a new American Hospital Association book by Anne Catanzarite, provides nurse managers with the knowledge and skills necessary to identify and intervene with a chemically dependent staff member. The reader will learn to identify nurses who are experiencing problems with drugs and alcohol, to intervene with those nurses and arrange for appropriate treatment and care, to reintegrate recovering nurses into the workplace and effectively monitor their performance, and to establish policies and procedures that will result in consistent management of alcohol and other drug problems in the workplace.

Managing the Chemically Dependent Nurse has 10 chapters and an appendix. Chapter 1, "The Disease of Chemical Dependency," provides some basic information on chemical dependency, including the basic stages and some known risk factors. Chapter 2, "Chemical Dependency Among Nurses," addresses the specific impact that chemical dependency has on nurses. Chapter 3, "Signs and Symptoms of Chemical Dependency," provides managers with the background needed to recognize nurses who may be chemically dependent. Chapter 4, "Enabling, an Obstacle to Identification and Intervention," focuses on how to recognize the pattern of enabling and describes how enabling affects the role of the nurse manager. Chapter 5, "Documentation of the Signs and Symptoms of Chemical Dependency," provides information on how to establish specific documentation to support the manager's belief that a problem exists.

Chapter 6, "Preparation for an Intervention, explains what an intervention is, when to decide it is necessary, and how to prepare for it. An actual intervention, which illustrates this process, is presented in Chapter 7, "A Sample Intervention." Chapter 8, "Chemical Dependency Treatment for Nurses," focuses on the tasks that should be completed after the nurse has agreed to enter treatment - for example, preparing and getting signatures on the treatment agreement, intervention report, and release of information to co-workers; preparing the nurse's colleagues for his or her return; and doing discharge planning and return-to-work planning jointly with one or more members of the intervention and treatment teams. Chapter 9, "Recovery and Return to Practice," discusses procedures for easing the nurse's return to the workplace, supporting the nurse's recovery, and ensuring safe nursing practice. Chapter 10, "A Facilitywide Alcohol and Drug Program," presents information and guidelines to help health care facilities develop a comprehensive alcohol and drug program.