Health Policy Paper

Impaired Nursing Practice Assignment Guidelines

Learning Objectives

Students will:

1. demonstrate understanding of the issues associated with impaired nursing practice from the perspectives of prevalence, risk factors, treatment options and psychosocial aspects of re-entry into practice following rehabilitation

2. demonstrate understanding of the indicators that a fellow staff member may be impaired

3. demonstrate understanding of the role of the staff nurse if a co-worker displays indicators of possible impairment while on duty

Sources of information:

1. California Board Of Registered Nursing website 2. Professional Nursing Journals (suggest a search on CINAL Plus, and the Cochrane

Database) 3. Nursing Textbooks 4. Your organization’s policy/procedures

Assignment:

1. Create a section in Portfolio III labeled “Impaired Nursing Practice”. 2. Using appropriate sources of information, write a paper titled “Impaired Nursing

Practice”. Have sections with separate headings for Prevalence, Risk Factors, Treatment Options, Psychosocial Aspects of Re-entry into Practice, Indicators of Co-worker Impairment, and Role of Staff Nurse When Suspicious of Co-Worker Impairment. Include at least a paragraph or two on each of the above topics. Imbed the paper into Portfolio III.

3. Use proper APA formatting throughout the assignment and create one reference sheet at the end.

4. Writing mechanics will be graded along with the content. 5. Be sure to review the grading rubric. 6. Submit the information about how to access your Portfolio on the “Impaired Nursing

Practice” assignment link when you have completed this assignment and it is available for review/grading.