Drug Testing

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I'm going to get raked over the coals for this one...

But I just HAD to ask this question.

At any point in your nursing career were you drug tested?

I'll say no more.

And no, I'm not a pothead. ;)

Shel

Same for all my nursing jobs. My current hosp also has a policy that they can ask you to do another one anytime they want and if you don't do it before you clock out for the day then you are terminated. They also randomly screen x amount of workers every month, I got one of those last year while i was pregnant and just laughed!:chuckle Really, i'm in small town georgia! One place I went to did hair testing, as drugs stay a lot longer in your hair i guess, months. They cut a strip of my hair across the crown of my head, you know i never even worked a day there-it was ltc and not my cup of tea and couldn't make it even through orientation. So much for the hair! i could always feel it growing back, a line of spiky hair under all the rest of it!

Specializes in LTC, office, home health.

Drug testing is pretty standard for most health care agencies now. Where I used to work, drug testing on hire and if employee was involved in any accidents while at work also. We also had to have a drug screen before admission to the community college nursing program.

I had to do a pre-employment drug test where I work now...that was 6 1/2 years ago. They don't do random or post-accident testing, only reasonable suspicion.

I don't think it's an invasion of privacy, I think it's a safety issue for a lot of jobs where you are either responsible for someone's life, or you work with dangerous machinery/equipment:

I did testing on someone sent to me from an outside company. He was a machine operator/driver, and they thought he was drunk. He said it was just a "misunderstanding." He insisted he wasn't hurting anyone, only himself. His breath alcohol was 0.18 and his urine tested + for cocaine and THC. Yep, just hurting himself... ;)

I would support random testing where I work. I don't think they ever would though, due to cost. I sometimes think the mentality would be they just don't want to know b/c they would lose a lot of staff and have to spend more money hiring new people! :)

does the University or college have to tell you if an entrance drug screen is necessary for admission or prior to classes? Do doctors get screened too? It doesn't seem fair if they aren't. It seems nurses are almost discriminated against. Borderline.

Don't blame the companies who, for safety sake, have decided to drug test. Blame the idiots who use drugs and messed it up for the rest of us.

I was drug tested as a condition of pre-employment. Random tests are asked only if you display some symptoms.

My 19 year old worked in the woods last year for an outfit that didn't drug test. He drove a skidder and 3/4 of the men he worked with smoked pot during their lunch break. People who drive large pieces of equipment in the woods and jeopardize lives by their choices. One man was a long-time meth addict, no teeth, was 36 and looked a burnt out 66. We found my son a safer job.

Truck drivers, airline pilots, school bus drivers, health care workers . . . .jobs which have other people's lives at stake. Unfortunately because of the choices of others, those of us who choose not to indulge have to be "punished" too. Like shoplifters . . they cause stores to raise the prices, they cause us to have to try clothes on with those large plastic doohickeys that alarm if you walk out the electronic gate. Don't blame the employers, blame the folks who make bad choices.

steph

Specializes in Critical Care / Psychiatry.
Same for all my nursing jobs. My current hosp also has a policy that they can ask you to do another one anytime they want and if you don't do it before you clock out for the day then you are terminated. They also randomly screen x amount of workers every month, I got one of those last year while i was pregnant and just laughed!:chuckle Really, i'm in small town georgia! One place I went to did hair testing, as drugs stay a lot longer in your hair i guess, months. They cut a strip of my hair across the crown of my head, you know i never even worked a day there-it was ltc and not my cup of tea and couldn't make it even through orientation. So much for the hair! i could always feel it growing back, a line of spiky hair under all the rest of it!

I can't freaking believe they cut your hair.

If anyone touched my locks I'd set them afire.

One strand is fine...but a whole row is ridiculous.

Shel

I can't freaking believe they cut your hair.

If anyone touched my locks I'd set them afire.

One strand is fine...but a whole row is ridiculous.

Shel

I was thinking the exact same thing. I'll pee in a cup anytime they want but my employers better keep their mitts away from my hair. That's taking things a bit far.

:balloons:what about clinicals? :balloons:

In corrections this happens at random and with some frequency. This along with being pat frisked plus any bag you have being searched. I am sure you can deal with it, unless you are doing something you shouldn't.

Fortunatly or unfortunatly for some people, it cuts down on the competition for a job. I hadn't heard about testing for nursing school before but that makes sense. I wonder if you pay for the test or do they, the school that is.

i just had to take a drug test for nursing school, its required by our clinical sites, and i had to pay 46 bucks for it, and the director said we will need like 4 more tests during our career as students, all of which we have to pay for ourselves, which seems a little excessive to me. i dont do drugs, so i dont mind being tested, but i do mind paying 50 bucks for it every time.

Just started a new job in April after relocating r/t hubby's job....had to have drug urine test to start....and then just "won" the lottery again...and had to donate more....and the girl in the next bathroom flushed...which you are not supposed to do...and they thought it was me...so the lab tech goes...Hey can you not follow directions.....I just started laughing and told her I was not the guilty party....

So the policy is random....anytime...or find another job...

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