Drug Testing

Specialties Geriatric

Published

Do any of your facilities do drug testing before hire or randomly throughout the year? What do you typically test for and is the presence of any drug enough to exclude someone? I'd hate to miss out on a good nurse because he smoked marijuana once or twice.

Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

Nope...not a ploy as someone said. Just a conversation. Best thing about this site...everyone is free to speak (type) their opinion. I don't think any of us has the time or inclination to do a digital trace (sounds icky) to find out who is at the other end of the screen name. If that were the case, many of us would have been fired for saying bad things about our bosses!

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My hospital has an indigent pt population with lots of methadone maintenance, ETOH pts on ativan, and other drug users. We typically administer many many doses of opiates and benzos on any given shift. Yet we are never drug tested. I would personally prefer to be drug tested than to have to be stressed out everytime I administer a 0.2 mg dose of dilaudid and have to get someone to waste a 1.8 mg vial with me - especially since more than once the computer hiccuped and spit out a narcotic variance that I then had to jump through hoops to resolve (once even coming in on my day off!).

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Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.

putting on my asbestos suit...

okay, I believe random drug testing without cause is a violation of my rights. I think Americans have been a bit cavalier about letting go of our personal and individual rights. I believe that our right to be free from illegal searches should include our body fluids, etc. No cause, no search as far as I am concerned.

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I'm not about to say that every hospital or agency is like this, BUT. . .my father was a manager at a facility (home health, which was owned by a larger hospital) where he knew that the level of THC that was tested for in their drug tests was very high. I.E. occasional marijuana users would pass their drug tests.

Of course, they did not advertise this to their employees.

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Michaelxy, if you have not already gone to the Nurses in Recovery section of All nurses, you should take a look. You are by far not the only nurse here that is recovering. I don't want to get off topic, but you're right , there is no OCCASSIONAL COCAINE user. That is rediculous. ALL ILLEGAL DRUGS are just that ... ILLEGAL . and NO it is NOT OKAY to do it just once at a party or every now and then. It ends really bad and it is not pretty.

Really? REALLY? You obviously don't have a lot of personal experience with cocaine, lol.

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Really? REALLY? You obviously don't have a lot of personal experience with cocaine, lol.

Maybe you could educate this person...

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heres a thought:

-If you think its ok to break a drug law , by just taking a puff of pot, wouldnt you be more likely to think its ok to just take one percocet for your back pain?

-I think its more of a question of judgement. Plus , like someone else said, i dont want a high nurse taking care of my family or me.

-I have heard that as many as 10% of the nurses working have a substance abuse problem. Thats 1 out of 10!! I hope they all get the help they need and dont hurt anyone in the meantime.

- I would be more than happy to submit to a random drug test at any time. I would welcome the request, it shows me that my patients are safer.

This logic is asinine. Comparing BREAKING THE LAW to smoke pot to diverting a patients meds is not even comparable. How many nurses break other laws every day? How many nurses drive over the speed limit or have run a damn red light?

The point is, many healthcare professionals believe that marijuana is more safe and benign than many prescription meds (and alcohol). And just because they may use them when they're not at work has nothing to do with what they're doing while on shift.

For someone who doesn't even drink or smoke (though if I did have chronic pain or cancer, I'd surely rather have medicinal marijuana!), I get really ****** off about this issue.

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Maybe you could educate this person...

Is it my job to educate NURSES on the Regan-era "War on Drugs" propaganda of "instantaneous addiction"? The SMOKE CRACK ONCE AND YOU'LL BE ADDICTED AND DIE theory?

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Specializes in icu,ccu,sicu,crna.

Anyone with a professional license to protect BEWARE!.. You can lose your license in a hurry and for casual use alone. BON's can pretty much do as they see fit. No innocent until proven guilty or reasonable doubt. You'll find yourself in a 3-5 year program that costs a fortune and be unable to work because of the restrictions placed on your license. Just saying BE CAREFUL! if you have any kind of license. :twocents:

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Even with drug tests due to missing narcs or wrong counts etc it doesn't prove anything. Most nurses I work with have a sript for something or another so if it shows up...it proves nothing.

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A woman from a neighboring county was just recently indicted on drug charges. She was stealing the narcotics and selling them. So, a drug test wouldn't have proven anything here either.

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Specializes in Psych, Onco, ED, Tele, Med/Surg.

IMHO, anyone who is using at work is a hazard for both the patients and their fellow staff. That said, off work is your business and what do I care.

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