Pre employment urine drug screen for nursing home, will they test for alcohol?

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This is my first RN job offer so I had no idea I would be drug tested when I went in that day to sign paperwork (I would not have drank at all had I have known this). I thought they would give me a 3 day heads up and send me to a lab corp. So my employment at this nursing home is contingent upon me passing a drug and background check.

The night before I drank about 10 or 11 beers, I probably went to sleep around 1am and the drug test was around 11am the next day.

Is this going to show up in the urine drug test? I'm a small person (5'8, 130 llbs) so I don't know if it had metabolized out of my system yet. I did feel a little buzzed that morning.

I'm freaking out, will they report me to the BON if alcohol shows up? :(

I wish they would've told me that I'd be taking a drug test when I went in to sign paperwork :(

thanks :)

so you don't think they'll take back the offer as long as everything else comes back ok? just watch me closely or retest me sometime?

I can't know for sure- but that's a possibility :)

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
This is my first RN job offer so I had no idea I would be drug tested when I went in that day to sign paperwork (I would not have drank at all had I have known this). I thought they would give me a 3 day heads up and send me to a lab corp. So my employment at this nursing home is contingent upon me passing a drug and background check.

The night before I drank about 10 or 11 beers, I probably went to sleep around 1am and the drug test was around 11am the next day.

Is this going to show up in the urine drug test? I'm a small person (5'8, 130 llbs) so I don't know if it had metabolized out of my system yet. I did feel a little buzzed that morning.

I'm freaking out, will they report me to the BON if alcohol shows up? :(

I wish they would've told me that I'd be taking a drug test when I went in to sign paperwork :(

Ten or eleven beers? I think you have more to worry about than the drug test.

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Hahaha right!? I guess our party habits get judged here :) Don't show up to work like that though! And if anybody here can tell me that they haven't had a fun/crazy party night they are lying or boring!

Seriously though, don't party before work, save it for the weekends and everybody needs to relax about the poor guy getting drunk! He just graduated nursing school and passed his boards, lighten up people!

:)

I'll save my sympathy for the people who are injured by people who are impaired.

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

They do check for alcohol, but as others have mentioned already you should be fine...assuming you are over 21, of course,

As far as the drinking 10-11 beers in a night...I won't judge that because only you know if your drinking habits are problem. If they are a problem, look into getting help ASAP (and you can start attending AA without notifying your BON).

Regardless, definitely adopt the habit of cutting back or--even better--not drinking the night before work. Most people don't perform at their best after drinking a lot the night before. Also, remember that when you fall asleep, your BAC doesn't automatically reset to zero when you wake-up. Should there be an injury/incident at work involving you, the standard operating procedure is to require immediate drug testing (urine, blood, breath)...and if ETOH, even from the night before, shows up in that test, it won't help matters much.

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Ten or eleven beers in one night sounds like overkill to me, too. On the plus side, I doubt that you sat down and started banging 'em back at midnight. Assuming you began drinking earlier in the evening, I would think most (if not all) of the alcohol should have been out of your system by the time you did the whiz quiz.

I'd be more concerned about appearing hung over.

You don't need a lecture, but I'd encourage you to avoid even occasional binges like this one. They just plain wreak havoc on your body and brain cells.

Kudos for staying over night and not driving. :up:

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They do check for alcohol, but as others have mentioned already you should be fine...assuming you are over 21, of course

why would they even test for it then when I'm over 21? so you're sure about that? whew!

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.
why would they even test for it then when I'm over 21? so you're sure about that? whew!

They don't test for it based on age. I was far from 21 when I had my pre-employment pre-screen and they tested for ETOH on it. Yes, I had some wine the night before--like you I didn't know I was going to pee in a cup the next day--but I wasn't concerned.

I'm just thinking that if your test came back showing ETOH and you happened to be, say, 19...that result would not reflect very well in the employer's eyes ;)

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Ten or eleven beers in one night sounds like overkill to me, too. On the plus side, I doubt that you sat down and started banging 'em back at midnight. Assuming you began drinking earlier in the evening, I would think most (if not all) of the alcohol should have been out of your system by the time you did the whiz quiz.

yea I don't know what time we started drinking but I definitely stopped around 2am, and took the test around 11am the next day

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They don't test for it based on age. I was far from 21 when I had my pre-employment pre-screen and they tested for ETOH on it. Yes, I had some wine the night before--like you I didn't know I was going to pee in a cup the next day--but I wasn't concerned.

I'm just thinking that if your test came back showing ETOH and you happened to be, say, 19...that result would not reflect very well in the employer's eyes ;)

so you weren't concerned because ETOH is legal? I hope my pee wasn't too diluted from the alcohol? :(

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.
so you weren't concerned because ETOH is legal?

Pretty much. I also hadn't had nowhere near as much as you did though--only two glasses of wine--so I figured whatever was in there would be minimal.

You can't un-drink or un-pee at this point, so I'd try to relax. I'd bet that you will come through this fine :)

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Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.
I think they're only looking for alcohol if you have a mishap at work that results in injury or serious error.

But other than that I don't see why they'd test for ETOH because it's not illegal to drink alcohol.

It's not illegal to smoke cigarettes either, but plenty of facilities test for it nowadays...

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Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.
This is my first RN job offer so I had no idea I would be drug tested when I went in that day to sign paperwork (I would not have drank at all had I have known this). I thought they would give me a 3 day heads up and send me to a lab corp. So my employment at this nursing home is contingent upon me passing a drug and background check.

The night before I drank about 10 or 11 beers, I probably went to sleep around 1am and the drug test was around 11am the next day.

Is this going to show up in the urine drug test? I'm a small person (5'8, 130 llbs) so I don't know if it had metabolized out of my system yet. I did feel a little buzzed that morning.

I'm freaking out, will they report me to the BON if alcohol shows up? :(

I wish they would've told me that I'd be taking a drug test when I went in to sign paperwork :(

I did read all of your post, and the piece that's jumping out at me is that you drank 10-11 beers in one event. YIKES! You felt "buzzed" when you went in to do your paperwork signing/drug screen? That speaks volumes, to me anyway....

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