Drug Testing At Hospitals

Nurses General Nursing

Updated:   Published

Hi, I was just wondering if nurses have to take random drug tests for illegal drugs? Don't worry, I'm not a druggie nursing student I was just wondering. We had to do them all the time in the Navy. Thanks.

Specializes in ICU, Education.

Yes, it all boils down to patient safety. Maybe i come across as "confident" cate, because i have seen some shocking things over the years, and i have some strong convictions about them. I am not a puritin. I am not saying i didn't do things when i was younger. However I grew up and took my adult respsponsibilities seriously. I take my profession seriously. Unfortunately, some people never grow up. We live in a society in which accountability is not a valued characteristic. Excuses are always accepted. Unfortunately many have to be monitored these days. Perhaps if the consequences were more severe, it wouldn't be necessary. But it is necessary. Knowing what i do, I would not want to be a patient in a place that did not screen their employees for such things.

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Specializes in Psych, Med/Surg, LTC.

Moral of the story: Don't take anything with valerian root and St. John's Wort in it.:(

I had no idea about the Valerian Root or St. John's Wort coming up as Serax. I used to take Valerian Root for insomnia!!!!! I guess I won't take that again... Thank you for the warning!

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Specializes in Public Health, DEI.

Not trying to nitpick here, but isn't a random drug test just that, a person selected at random and not because they're under suspicion? I ask because where I work, they can ask you to submit to a drug test if they have specific reasons for suspecting you might be impaired. However, they don't do what I understand to be random testing.

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multicollinarity said:
I have an uncle who cheats on his urine screens. He is diabetic and insulin dependent. He said something about this being a problem with being a truck driver? I suspect he likes to partake of the MJ too. He takes in urine from a child (I don't know how?) and presents it as his own. Something about a ziplock bag. How he fools them, I don't know. Frankly, I'm glad he's 2000 miles from me. But there ya go. This is why the lab staff must do these things.

:trout: ...geez if he ever has an accident on the job he's screwed..I agree about the 2000 miles apart..unfortunately some people just don't "get it"

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dorimar said:
Why would one refuse a drug test? hmm....

Because it is a gross violation of my right to privacy. There are restrictions on what a potential employer is allowed to ask a previous employer about me, yet, I am required to provide a sample of my bodily fluids for examination?

I don't do drugs. I've been drug tested for just about every job I've ever had (nursing or not) and I think the experience is rather degrading.

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dorimar said:
Jerseyboy,

The US government is not knocking on your door and demanding you take a drug test, are they?

So do we wait until it comes to that before we speak up? As GWB once said, things would be a lot easier if this was a dictatorship. People are so quick to relinquish rights/freedoms that they feel do not apply directly to them - they don't realize that these rights/freedoms as a whole apply to all of us.

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Specializes in Emergency, PACU, ICU,.
dorimar said:
Why would one refuse a drug test? hmm....

I am gritting my teeth on THIS one... :angryfire

Why? Has to do with rights. Innocent until PROVEN guilty? Heard of that? Where does it say in the constitution that you have rights and priveleges so long as you can pass a drug test?

Hey, if someone's diverting, yeah, test 'em. That's also STEALING.

Random testing and testing prior to hire is WRONG!

Cave and roll. One more right down the tubes. Totalitarianism is coming. One step at a time.

Sheesh....

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crazylilkelly said:
Hi,

I was just wondering if nurses have to take random drug tests for illegal drugs? don't worry, I'm not a druggie nursing student I was just wondering. we had to do them all the time in the navy. thanks

I just wanted to mention that I actually was turned off by a facility that didn't do pre-employment drug testing. I think that in this profession, it is just necessary. I have worked in a LTC facility where drug testing was not done, and there were two nurses that I know of that were being "watched" for suspected drug stealing. (whether or not they were actually using them or not, I cannot say, I just know that they were suspected of taking them from the narcotic drawers). In addition, there was another nurse that, only in my opinion, seemed to be high some of the time, although that could have just been her personality, as she always seemed to be an efficient nurse=) This facility is also desperate for nurses, so I am sure it is kind of a "don't ask, Don't tell" mentality, to keep the place staffed.

When I recently applied for a position in a hospital, they did ask me to do a drug test, and I was happy to do it! It shows me that they care about the employees taking care of their patients! And it also proves to me that I am going to be, at least to the best of their ability, working side by side with nurses who are drug free.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Cardiac.

I'm surprised to hear that drug testing isn't a frequent regular occurence at all hospitals.

At a former job (chemist at a corporate research lab) there was random drug testing based on hair samples, so they could see what you've been doing in previous months. I might mention that in that company an impaired employee would have no effect on coworkers, though he probably wouldn't be too productive for the company.

I would expect to be tested in an environment with frequent exposure to controlled substances and where one's performance could have an effect on patients' wellbeing.

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Specializes in Occ health, Med/surg, ER.

OK, I have a question. I have a prescription for phentermine. The other day at my job, someone told me I could come out dirty for amp. So, I snuck one of our DOT tests and sure enough. Positive for AMP. So, if I would get a random..I would come out positive. So then I would just show my prescription to my boss and the lab?? Then what???

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Some nurses on this thread feel it's an invasion of their privacy, but patients have a right to be cared for by drug free nurses and other nurses have a right to work with nurses who are drug free.

Personally, I don't want to work with you if you are taking drugs.

In this day and age potential employers or your current employer doesn't really know you well enough to know for sure that you are drug free just on your word alone.

I don't do drugs. Never have and never will. But I've been tested twice in my life.....once when applying for a job, and my name was pulled up randomly on my current job. My DON's name was selected twice by the computer before anyone else in our department. She was tested before any of the rest of us were.

And one poster's comments about it not being any of the employer's business if they are taking prescription drugs.......it is my understanding that if it is a prescription drug and you have a valid RX for it, then you have nothing to worry about.

What has ruined the working situation for all of us are the ones who for years tried to get away with doing drugs on the job. Now we all are subject to be tested.

I don't want to be a patient cared for by a druggie, or board an airplane or train piloted by a druggie, or ride in a taxi driven by a druggie. DO YOU???

I want to live as long as I can, until called home by Almighty God. I don't want some drug addict making the decision for God when I should be called out of this world. But alot of people's innocent lives are taken that way.

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we have to do a drug test for employment. haven't heard of random drug testing but if there is an "incident" at our hospital of missing narcotics etc. they can drug test us. we aren't union.

my hubby is a pilot and they can drug test him at any time-i think the same thing should go for nurses-we both have lives in our hands!

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