Drug Testing Question, new student - page 2

[quote=JomoNurse;3770317]it's illegal to kick someone out of a program for taking medication that you NEED to take. just because you take pain medication doesn't automatically mean that you're impaired. that's evaluated on a case by case basis. i think you might be overreacting a bit by saying you aren't allowed to take medicine with a rx. they can not tell you that - that is i l l e g a l.

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Well, it may be illegal but they do it and I wasn't willing to jeopardize my chance in the program over some pain meds that I wouldn't need in a week anyway. It's not the program per se. It was the hospital itself. You are NOT allowed to be on any drugs that could "impair judgement". Therefore, if you are, you are not able to do clinicals at the hospital. Without being able to do clinicals, you are not able to pass the program. So, its a rock and a hard place.

Yes programs do test randomly throughout. Every week or so a handful of students would be held after class for random drugs tests. My name was never called. But it could have been so I was careful to only take what I had a rx for or OTCs. Random drug testing depends on the area, state requirements and hospital requirements where clinicals are being conducted. Our area has a huge drug problem, so they are very vigilant. Just have you rx with you. There were students on pain medication in my program for various reasons. As long as the reason did not prevent you from perform your tasks in clinical there was no problem. On issue to consider is will you even be able to lift/roll patients with back pain.

what can cause a false positive? i recently had a urinalysis done and it was abnormal, showing protein & blood and im just concerned that that can cause a false positive. my dr already knows my urinalysis was abnormal so im not worried as to why the protein & blood were there. but i dont want to fail this drug test. can vitamins not a prescription be a problem? what about topical acne medications?