Chamberlain

allnurses Guide · Jun 14, 2017

I have had monitored and unmonitored...the unmonitored is always performed in a bathroom with nothing but a toilet in there...no sink. The sink is outside the room. You are instructed to place your purse and empty your pockets completely into a locked box or locker. You wash your hands and are then given your cup. The technician will place a dye in the toilet immediately before letting you in that changes color when exposed to certain substances known to be used in falsifying drug tests. Your urine cup will be measured for temperature, since fresh urine should be within specific temperature parameters. It is also tested for dilution in case you tried to hyper hydrate to mask a positive. You bring the urine cup back to the technician after you go and they label and seal it under your supervision. Oh...and you also only have a certain amount of time alone in the bathroom to produce your sample.

The only time I had a monitored test was for nursing school, because the test was performed in the bathroom at the school, leaving all sorts of variables in place that are not there when done at a lab designed for drug testing. Bathrooms designed for drug testing have nothing but a toilet in it and you are not allowed to bring in anything other than your urine cup. However, in that situation nobody is in the bathroom with you watching you pee.

alieu4 · Jun 14, 2017

Wow, some people are quick to judge on this website. Thank God I'm not one of those people. Anyway, I understand your concerns of drug tests being uncomfortable. For urine drug testing, no one is watching you. You'll be in the bathroom with the cup you'll urinate in. You also can't take personal belongings in the bathroom with you. I've never experienced the other types of drug tests. As long as you know you have nothing to hide, then I'd say don't worry about it. Good luck in your studies at Chamberlain!

acap2017 · Jun 15, 2017

Drug tests just depend on what your nursing program's policy is. Where I went to school, the nursing program never drug tested us in order to get into school, but we were randomly tested each semester for 4 years. I'm not saying you use drugs nor am I assuming the same thing, but your post definitely raises a few flags and if I was a faculty member and saw this, you'd be someone I tested for sure. Good luck with your nursing school adventures!

ASN2016, ASN · Jun 15, 2017

PPL are quick to judge! just answer the questions! Nobody came for a lecture on suspicious, anyways! to OP usually it is not monitored,only in court cases are monitored drug testing is recommended or a very high-end-government-security job! You should be fine. Random drug test can occur so keep clean!!!

ThePsychWhisperer, BSN, MSN, APRN, NP · Jun 15, 2017

PPL are quick to judge! just answer the questions! Nobody came for a lecture on suspicious, anyways! to OP usually it is not monitored,only in court cases are monitored drug testing is recommended or a very high-end-government-security job! You should be fine. Random drug test can occur so keep clean!!!

No, we're not necessarily quick to judge; did you read the original post at all? The OP asked if the test would be blood, urine, or hair. Different drugs stay in each medium for different lengths of time. Would it be monitored or unmonitored? Is it just this test, or will I be tested again randomly? The last two questions say to me "will someone be watching me, or can I mess with the contents of this test to squeak by?" and "Do I have to stay clean throughout the year, or do I only have to go about a week without and be fine?" If the others and myself have incorrectly identified the OP as someone that is trying to find a way to sneak by on a drug test, then great. But I see big red flags a blowin'.

ASN2016, ASN · Jun 15, 2017

Oh Okay. Yes you are right. OP was asking suspicious questions that can raise red flags! I just thought he was inquiring about if they were monitoring the test during the initial and random tests performed. It is good to keep clean in this profession or it can cost you a lot.

Editorial Team / Moderator · Jun 15, 2017

Whether it's a shy bladder, fear of needles, etc.: there are many, many people who post here and ask the same questions because they use drugs and they are looking for ways to circumvent the process. It's sad to see people invest so much time/energy/money in nursing school only to have it all amount to nothing because they didn't give up their habits. Bottom line, there is drug testing before, possibly during, and after school, there really is no way to circumvent it, and if you cannot deal with that for ANY reason, this is not going to work out well. This is a position of trust, and those "powers that be" have an established need to ensure safe care that is not eroded by substance abuse.

I have been randomly tested as a civilian nurse where I was given a cup, all my belongings were placed elsewhere, and I was directed to a bare bathroom without a working sink and with the blue dye in the toilet (which also prevents people from watering down the specimen; and if it's old, like you had a bag of some "clean" urine on your person, that cup won't be warm ... the monitors can tell). I have also had several full-on monitored urine tests courtesy of the US Army. They actually watch the urine exit your body and enter the cup. You get used to it after a while, though my only issue was they always seemed to summon me right after I had already used the restroom and my nurse bladder takes a while to refill!

OP, don't be offended â€” your questions do bear similarity to those who use drugs on a recreational basis, and those folks are setting themselves up for failure if they enter healthcare. No one wants to see others waste their time and money!

Best of luck with your BSN program. :)

OrganizedChaos, LVN · Jun 16, 2017

Wow, some people are quick to judge on this website. Thank God I'm not one of those people. Anyway, I understand your concerns of drug tests being uncomfortable. For urine drug testing, no one is watching you. You'll be in the bathroom with the cup you'll urinate in. You also can't take personal belongings in the bathroom with you. I've never experienced the other types of drug tests. As long as you know you have nothing to hide, then I'd say don't worry about it. Good luck in your studies at Chamberlain!

We're not judgmental, we're reading between the lines. As many a poster has mentioned it is odd that this poster who just joined & created this one thread asked pretty odd questions about drug tests. Questions that raise red flags that are similar to those of who, who do drugs & try to lie on the drug tests.

Vanessaawuli · Sep 20, 2017

No I think you just think that way , last time I had to take a blood drug test I almost passed out , I read her question 1,000 times and she said nothing about using drugs , yes your right no one should be using any drugs when in nursing school that's understandable , but Wow your husbands Bestfriend's does coke ? Show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are . And anyway to the young lady who posted itsvjust a regular test at a lab corp or quest diagnostics , but doing drugs isnt a good idea . Let's say medication goes missing in the floor where you have clinical on everyone on that floor is getting tested immediately ,

tre19 · Oct 4, 2017

Can anyone give an insight about the background check in terms of credit? I have 3 defaulted credit cards on my credit report. Does this affect my admission to the nursing program? or do they check only for criminal offenses?

TUGlife · Nov 2, 2017

So this post has me thinking. I completely understand chemical drugs being tested but why is marijuana tested? It is a plant in its natural form and can't be chemicalized to cause harm or death. I agree with narcotics testing just not marijuana. Might as well test for alcohol too. At the end of the day, great nurses would never come to work under the influence of any weed or alcohol and should only loose their license and be punished if they are involved with chemical drugs. The fact that weed is is still considered an illegal substance and is in the same league as cocaine, ecstacy, and such is beyond me. I consider mysef a great future nurse and I drink and eat a weed brownie every so often. I just hope times change.

Editorial Team / Moderator · Nov 2, 2017

So this post has me thinking. I completely understand chemical drugs being tested but why is marijuana tested? It is a plant in its natural form and can't be chemicalized to cause harm or death. I agree with narcotics testing just not marijuana. Might as well test for alcohol too. At the end of the day, great nurses would never come to work under the influence of any weed or alcohol and should only loose their license and be punished if they are involved with chemical drugs. The fact that weed is is still considered an illegal substance and is in the same league as cocaine, ecstacy, and such is beyond me. I consider mysef a great future nurse and I drink and eat a weed brownie every so often. I just hope times change.

At the end of the day, if you test positive for THC, you won't have the opportunity to become a future great nurse. At this point in time, from a Federal standpoint and in many states, marijuana is not legal from a recreational standpoint. Even in those states where it's legal, because of our roles as nurses and not being able to prove that a positive test doesn't come along with impairment, employers won't allow nurses and other professionals that care for the public to use marijuana. If you want to be a future great nurse, you should probably stop with the edibles. Is it fair? Maybe not. Is it reality? Yep. Best of luck.