Background: There may be at least 220,000 to 286,000 registered nurses in the United States who have some form of mental illness. There have been no published studies of nurses impaired by emotional or psychological dysfunction.
Objective: This study provides a description of characteristics of nurses impaired by emotional and psychological dysfunction.
Design: Fifty-seven nurses in a Southeastern state's peer assistance program responded to a questionnaire adapted from Sullivan's (1987a) descriptive study of recovering chemically impaired nurses.
Results: Fifty-eight percent of the sample report major depression as their primary psychiatric diagnosis with 21% of the sample believing their emotional or psychological impairment was caused by a personality weakness.
Conclusions: The findings indicate the needfor improved education and support of nurses impaired from emotional and psychological dysfunction.
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