A staff nurse suspects that a newly licensed nurse is chemically impaired. Which of the following actions should the staff nurse take?

The nurse is planning to use a democratic leadership style when conducting an in-service that encourages active member participation and feedback about decreasing nosocomial infections on the unit. A democratic leader values the input and opinions of team members and encourages participation and collaboration in decision-making. By encouraging active participation and feedback from team members, the nurse is demonstrating a democratic approach to leadership.

The other options are not the leadership style that the nurse plans to use in this situation. A laissez-faire leader [b] takes a hands-on approach and allows team members to make their own decisions without providing guidance or direction. An autocratic leader [c] makes decisions unilaterally without seeking input or feedback from team members. An open-door leader [d] maintains an open-door policy and is accessible to team members, but this does not necessarily involve active participation and feedback from team members.

An incident report should be filed whenever an unexpected event occurs. The rule of thumb is that any time a patient makes a complaint, a medication error occurs, a medical device malfunctions, or anyone— patient, staff member, or visitor—is injured or involved in a situation with the potential for injury, an incident report is required ⁴. In this case, the client's missing dentures would be considered a complaint and would require the nurse to complete an incident report.

The other options do not require an incident report. Disagreeing with the nurse manager about inadequate staffing [a], a staff member not arriving at the facility to work an assigned shift [b], and discovering that the client does not have advanced directives [d] are not situations that would require an incident report according to the information provided in my sources.