Drunk on the job?? Need advice bad!!

[RN34TX]

My partner has decided that he wants to be a nurse and I wanted him to get a good idea of what he was getting into before he started taking classes so he took the nursing assistant course and got a job at my hospital on a Med/Surg floor.

He seems to like it a lot more than I had expected (I know that being a CNA can be rough) and has a lot of enthusiasm for the job. We've run into old patients at Walmart and other places in our town and they all have praised him for treating them or their family so well during their hospital stay. He's gotten great feedback from his co-workers and managers about how quickly he's caught on to the job for having no prior patient care experience.

Here's the problem:

He was pulled into the office and told by his managers that it was reported to them he smelled of "old alcohol" during one of his shifts. I didn't understand this terminology but he explained that it meant that he wasn't drinking on the job but perhaps had too much the night before. His managers didn't document any of it, it was "off the record" and laughed it off and told him not to worry about it but wanted him to be aware that someone had said something to them. Of course he was still humiliated by this and started obsessing about using deoderant, mouthwash, etc. because he sweats easily and is not used to such a physically demanding job and thought he was offensive to his co-workers.

Another month went by and he was pulled into the office again and was told that the charge nurse smelled alcohol on him on a previous shift. Coincidentally, this second incident occurred right after he confronted this charge nurse that she was being rude and hard on him. I personally found this woman to be rude in my own experience when transferring patients to her and she has no idea that we are together or even know each other at this point, so I can imagine that she probably doesn't treat the CNA's too well either.

This time one of the two managers has since changed her story and now claims that she too smelled it on him during the first incident. The other manager is on his side and is aware that her co-manager has changed her story from the first time and actually warned him to stay clear of her when they had a private conference together.

This time it was written up and I looked it over at home. His job performance continues to be superior, they both emphasized at his meeting with them that there have been no patient safety or behavioral issues and that all of the nurses still believe him to be a great worker. Two of the staff RN's told him that they were approached by the managers and asked if they ever smelled alcohol on him and they both said never and had no idea what they were talking about.

I started thinking that maybe he did have a problem and perhaps I was in deep denial. We drive to work together and work almost all of the same days. We also take our lunch breaks together and I've never noticed an alcohol smell or any behavioral indications that he'd been drinking or even hung over.

We do both drink and sometimes stop at the local bar after a hard shift and share stories as do many people.

We both weigh about the same and drink about the same but in 8 years of nursing I've never been told that I smell like alcohol at work. We're always in bed before 10 pm on any night that we have to work the next day so I'm not getting what's going on here.

Wouldn't the patients or families smell it on him too?

And why do some (or at least one) of the nurses smell alcohol on him but others think that the whole story is crazy?

What can or should we do about this?

I welcome all comments and suggestions even if you think he may have a problem as well.

He's humiliated and scared about his future in nursing going to pot over this.

P.S. A little off topic but it's part of why I'm so suspicious of this whole thing. The unit he works on has long had a bad reputation with other units including mine. My co-workers warned me about this unit from the beginning that the nurses are notorious for attempting to delay and refuse patients and try to get people into trouble once they do bring patients to them. I have been told many times that rooms weren't clean and ready when my partner will tell me at lunch that the room was clean and ready since he came on duty that morning and that they've been lying to me to keep from getting patients.

[jkaee]

What a yucky situation.....

Well, all I can offer is if he does not have a drinking problem (which it doesn't sound like, but of course I'm a 3rd party here) then maybe for the sake of his future nursing career he should try to transfer to another unit. Sometimes, people are just out to get other workers, especially those who are good at what they do and get praise and compliments from family, patients and management.

If he does smell of "old alcohol", then I would just advise that you guys save the bar trips for nights that you don't have to go to work the next day. It could be that he just metabolizes alcohol differently and he tends to have an alcohol odor about him the next day. I know if I eat a meal with a lot of garlic I tend to have a garlic "odor" the next day. Good to keep away vampires, bad for anyone who gets near my heavily deodarized armpit. :chuckle

If this continues to be a problem, then he needs to get out of there. I can't believe that someone can be "written up" for smelling of alcohol. If anything, if a nurse thinks anyone working is impaired or smells of alcohol, they need to send that person home, not let them keep working and write them up later. This sounds very strange to me, and he might want to bring it up the chain of command a bit.

I wish him luck, and let us know how he's doing.

[mom2michael, MSN, RN, NP]

If your partner hasn't been doing anything wrong then he has nothing to worry about. He should submit to all necessary testing, etc... if they require it....but if it was me, I would be looking for another job ASAP, it sounds like that unit just wants to cause problems for him (or anyone for that matter). If he has been doing outstanding as far as his job performance goes, it should be easy to find another job and run far from that place!!!

I agree with the other poster, it might be best to save the drinking trips for nights where he knows for sure he won't be working the next day. :)

Good luck to you both!!!

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Tell him to try an experiment. No drinking period. No drinking after work after a hard day. No drinking at all for a month or two and see if the accusations continue to arise. If they do, he demands a blood alcohol level to prove his innocence, including a willingness to pay for it. It's true sometimes you can smell it the next day on a person after a hard night of drinking, so no partying for a while.

Someone who doesn't have a drinking problem will have not problem with this plan. Someone without a drinking problem would put their job before drinking and not drink to prove his point. Someone without a drinking problem can easily not drink for extended periods of time.

Tell him also not to use mouthwash with ETOH in it. My spouse uses that and I swear it smells like he's drinking sometimes.

Good luck.

[Katnip, RN]

I was going to mention the mouthwash thing too. Some of them have a strong odor that resembles alcohol.

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

I definitely agree here with people smelling of alcohol after drinking the night before. Phew . . I've smelled it, it ain't good. :uhoh21:

And people who are around someone all the time may be so used to it that they can't smell it. Sort of like a person who cannot tell he has B.O. He is used to the smell.

I also agree with the idea of taking a break from alcohol for awhile.

Take a look at the unit he is working on and decide if he really wants to work somewhere with the kinds of divisiveness he has and others have encountered.

steph

[leopold]

Sometimes those antiseptic hand sanitizers can leave a smell of alcohol too. Doesn't last long but I remember one time walking into a classroom and being knocked back by the smell of alcohol.

I agree with the poster who said he should abstain for a period and see if he gets the same feedback. However, I think that this is not the kind of nonesense worth losing a job for (and maybe getting your license tagged) or just having to deal with a lot of game playing. He should look for a job in a different facility. Being a CNA is hard enough, no one should have to deal with being subjected to this kind of thing.

[debroh1]

What is your hospital policy on alcohol use at work? If the supervisor is now changing her story and claims she smelled alcohol why wasn't he sent home or an investigation started? It is a serious threat to patient safety to allow a coworker who you suspect of abusing alcohol at work to continue the shift. I would push that angle with anyone who brings up the issue. Also definately find out the policy and if questioned again, refer to it and follow all guidelines (my facility will send you for a breath test immediately) this should not only stop all problems, but will be the basis for any other wrongful actions taken. I work with my spouse as well and know the difficulties of other coworkers taking out their problems with him on me. Sad that some people feel the need to act this way. But if your partner is serious about keeping his job, either transfer to another unit or document every interaction with supervisors over the "alcohol" smell and follow thru to insure his reputation and job are safe.

[Virginia.CARN]

Several possibilities... ask for an etoh level to be done immediately when accused. Then the results will speak for themselves. Know your chain of command and your facilities policies and procedures in reference to employment, on-the-job impairment, and dismissals. Knowledge is power. Unfortunately, in the facility in which I work employees can be dismissed without warning or written cause.

As far as the unit claiming dirty rooms when in fact there are ready rooms, if you have a house super, use them. Fortunately, we have some great supers and they will do just that. If the rooms are found dirty, then a stat clean will be done to acommadate pt and staffing needs.

Good luck.

[DusktilDawn]

Smells more like a "witch hunt" than alcohol to me. :angryfire

Allowing a colleague to work impaired would put my license in jeopardy for allowing them to place patients in harms way. If I suspected a co-worker was drunk, I would immediately call the supervisor and have them up there pronto!! Funny how in both situations this was not done. Amazing how these allegations arise well after the fact. Another changes the story also. Incident report is written up based on these allegations, no actual proof, just based on 2 people's statements and another who changed their story.

Your partner is not in a good situation. :uhoh21:

[RN34TX]

I'm way ahead of you guys on this one. Neither of us have had anything to drink all weekend because he's working today and I'm just daring them to make another accusation.

He's also already requested in writing to his managers that blood be drawn the next time anyone suspects alcohol abuse. He just did that today so I'm not sure what they'll have to say about that.

Also, we only stop at the bar on nights where we don't work the next day but for now we're stopping altogether.

It's pretty bad when your personal life has been so intruded on by your employer and to feel so controlled like this but what else can we do?

I also found it odd that he didn't get sent home when he smelled like alcohol and they just let him keep working.

Didn't think about the mouthwash thing, I'll tell him.

Thank you all so much, this whole thing has just freaked me out.

[smk1, LPN]

Smells more like a "witch hunt" than alcohol to me. :angryfire

Allowing a colleague to work impaired would put my license in jeopardy for allowing them to place patients in harms way. If I suspected a co-worker was drunk, I would immediately call the supervisor and have them up there pronto!! Funny how in both situations this was not done. Amazing how these allegations arise well after the fact. Another changes the story also. Incident report is written up based on these allegations, no actual proof, just based on 2 people's statements and another who changed their story.

Your partner is not in a good situation. :uhoh21:

i agree. He should demand an blood alcohol test immediately. Better yet he should leave this job before someone decides to make problems with the State Board. He is being set up and he needs to get proactive. Quit drinking for awhile, and transfer out of this unit immediately. IF this happens again he should immediately get a lood test done and keep copies with the dates on them for his own records.