Did anyone quit smoking when they stated nursing school?

karen230 · Mar 18, 2008

I am so mad at myself right now! :madface:I quit smoking after 8 years the day I found out I was pregnant with my son. (now two years old) In a moment of weakness I started again. I am starting nursing school this summer. What kind of role model would I be as a "smoking nurse" Any suggestions or positive stories would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I can completely relate to you :nuke:. I too am a smoker who is currently trying to quit and having a hard time. I don't crave cigarettes anymore but can't seem to break the habit cigarettes. My DH is also a smoker and he is the one who wanted us to quit and hasn't even made an attempt at quitting :confused: . Anyway, I will tell you this, I went to my GP and he gave me a script for Chantix and it is truly amazing :yeah: . I have to pay for the script upfront then submit a claim to my insurance to get reimbursed but it has been completely worth it!! I noticed a severe drop in the number of cigarettes I was smoking by the end of the first week taking it.

I too want to be smoke free before attending nursing school but the habit cigarettes are truly my struggle now :banghead: . I have somewhat been able to prevent myself from some habit cigarettes but home is truly where I struggle (but DH smokes so it is harder on me). But I will say this....even though I still smoke, smoking STINKS!!!! Seriously, DH will come in the house after a cigarette and he just smells like he has been playing in an ashtray. Go figure why I haven't completely given it up yet........ :rolleyes: .

Jules A, MSN · Mar 18, 2008

If there is any way you can quit now it will really make things easier on you. As I'm sure you know for some reason its acceptable to be mean to smokers and nursing school is no exception. Most programs really frown on smoking and in mine if you get caught smoking on the school/facility grounds you could be kicked out.

I quit during LPN school and while I loved every one I ever smoked I'm glad I don't anymore. It was the snarky comments from the fat non-smokers that actually motivated me to quit. I had gotten to the point where I was ready to snap on the overweight, greasy cheeseburger eating students who felt it necessary to put the smokers down. Funny that it wouldn't have been acceptable for me to make comments about their fat behinds but they could insult smokers, in any event it motivated me to quit rather than blow my stack. :smokin:

spider11 · Mar 18, 2008

As a non-smoker and an LPN in a hospital that is "non-smoking", I personally think it's offensive to smell smoke on a nurse. Our hospital is supposed to be a non-smoking campus but nurses and everyone else still go outside and smoke on the sidewalk right off the property. When the nurse comes back in from smoking they leave a trail of stink. (my husband just quit smoking and I was really hard on him. lol) People who have breathing issues or a sensitive nose can't hardly take it. My clinical instructor while I was in school was very hard on the smokers if they came in smelling like smoke. I would really try hard to quit before school.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Mar 18, 2008

i don't want to scare you, but i have to share some anecdotal information with you that has been heavily on my mind for a couple of years now. that is the relationship between cancer and smoking.

i've worked as a med/surg nurse for many years. five and a half years on a step down unit where we had a lot, i mean a lot, of smokers with emphysema who we got to know very well in the end stages of their disease. some of them got lung cancer at the very end and there's not a damn thing the docs can do for them because they can't tolerate surgery because their lungs are shot to hell.

my mom smoked for almost 20 years during the wwii years, the 50's, and part of the 60's before she finally quit. she swore she never smoked more than 10 years. i remember seeing her packs of newports all around the house. my brother used to steal them all the time--this was in the 60's when he was 14. he's still smoking today--lucky strikes, unfiltered! mom got breast cancer 3 years ago and despite surgery, chemo and radiation therapy, it metz'd right to her lungs. you should have seen the ct scan photo of her lungs that they showed us. looked liked two beautifully marbled steaks--her lung fields were riddled with cancer. from the first episode of a little sob to her death, it killed her in 6 weeks--that fast.

her brother a life long smoker just died last month of metastasized lung cancer (from the prostate). it took six months for the lung cancer to finish him off.

last week my sister-in-law's mother died. she has had cor pulmonale and emphysema for some time. she's been on oxygen for the past few years and because of her confusion due to hypoxia she's been fun to be around. two weeks ago they did a chest x-ray because she'd been having a lot of congestion problems. all they told the family at first was that she needed a thoracentesis to drain off a bunch of pleural fluid. when my sil called me to ask about this, i knew something was terribly wrong. you don't get fluid in the pleural space unless there is a disease process going on and cancer is usually at the top of the list followed by infection. after the thoracentesis, the docs finally told the family there was a golf ball sized tumor in the right lower lobe. surgery wasn't an option because of her emphysema. she was put into hospice and didn't last 4 days. the death certificate lists her cause of death as copd, but she was real sob up to the end and on huge amounts of oxygen.

i worry. i smoked for about 5 years just before and during the time i was in nursing school. we had horses when i was a teenager. i was 16 years old and used to ride out to the woods, sit under a tree and smoke a couple of tarrytons, my cigarette of choice at the time. inhaled too. later i switched to salems and smoked a pack and a half a day. i never had a problem quitting. the fact is, i never really liked it much, but my friends smoked. what a dumb reason to smoke, huh? but, in my life i've have cancer three times. this last time, the scariest--colon cancer, stage ii-iii, very poorly differentiated, i was damn lucky they found it. i had surgery. the oncologist they sent me too treats very aggressively. he thinks he finished it off with the last 6 months of chemotherapy, but we are still holding our breath. got another pet scan (doing them every 4 months) scheduled next month to check for mets. for those who don't know, colon ca mets to the liver, pancreas, lung, and sometimes the heart. oh, yeah, i have a pacemaker. heart disease runs rampant on my dad's side of the family. my last pet scan showed a couple of nodules in my lung. no one was worried. these nodules have showed up before and then mysteriously disappeared.

my advice. . .if you've never smoked, don't start. if you are smoking, why? just quit. as you get older find a doctor who does a chest x-ray on you every year. my internist does. i hear that the people who grow tobacco have to have a license to do so. good! i think the day will come when growing tobacco will be outlawed. people will probably illegally grow it in pots in their back yards! just seeing the patients with copd was enough to scare me off of cigarettes. i hope you never have to experience these patients. it is truly a sad state of affairs, not to mention that they will drive you nuts with their anxiety issues.

ChristineN, BSN, RN · Mar 18, 2008

I actually didn't start smoking until after I started nursing school (been smoking approx 15 months). At one point I was up to half a pack a day of Marlboro's, but I was able to cut back alot on my own. Now, while I still smoke, I might smoke that in a week. I know, still not good, but at least it's better. I had the hardest time last summer, I'd grab a pack, and go sit on the porch and do my homework. At least when it's cold out I'm not as tempted to study and smoke (I won't smoke inside my apartment).

BTW, to the person who stated that nursing instructors frown on smoking and could get in in trouble if you're caught smoking at school, it's the exact opposite at my school. I've had at least half a dozen in structors throughout my schooling that have been nursing instructors that smoked, and it's not unusual to catch them outside smoking with the students. The clinical sites my school uses are all "smoke free" facilities, but it's not that hard to walk to the sidewalk or cross the street to smoke, then you aren't on hospital property. My school is not smoke free and you can frequently catch nursing students smoking outside.

misserella8036 · Mar 18, 2008

If there is any way you can quit now it will really make things easier on you. As I'm sure you know for some reason its acceptable to be mean to smokers and nursing school is no exception. Most programs really frown on smoking and in mine if you get caught smoking on the school/facility grounds you could be kicked out.
I quit during LPN school and while I loved every one I ever smoked I'm glad I don't anymore. It was the snarky comments from the fat non-smokers that actually motivated me to quit. I had gotten to the point where I was ready to snap on the overweight, greasy cheeseburger eating students who felt it necessary to put the smokers down. Funny that it wouldn't have been acceptable for me to make comments about their fat behinds but they could insult smokers, in any event it motivated me to quit rather than blow my stack.

Yeah - my school is a non-smoking campus - as is all the hospitals. i appreciate everyones input. I quit before and would gag when someone who smoked walked by me. I know I can do it again. I need to stick to my guns. If not for me - for my two boys - I don't want to lose years with my family over a cancer stick!

athena55, BSN, RN · Mar 18, 2008

hello All

I started smoking big-time when I entered Nursing School (diploma program) Smoked for about 11 years and quit the day I had son # 1 (back in the day you were allowed to smoke in the hospital but only in designated smoking areas. I had just had a C-Section and I had a wee bit too much pain to go walking down the hall for a smoke) Thankfully I have stayed smoke-free for 24 years (my son's B'day)

I am glad that the majority of public places are smoke free. Second hand smoke bothers me to this day. I am soooo glad that my three son's haven't picked up that awful habit

respectfully,

athena

studently42 · Mar 19, 2008

Well, after 11 years of smoking 1 1/2 packs a pay preceded by 15 years of smokeless tobacco use, I have quit for 9 days now. I'm just finishing up my second semester of NS (final is tomorrow-taking a study break). The main thing that has motivated me to quit has been caring for COPD patients. You can hear all the statistics in the world, but seeing a SOB 58 year old lady so scared that she is going to die, but still hasn't quit, really drives home what the end result will be if I don't quit. The first 4-5 days were terrible, but now I feel really good. It was also very hard to do an 8 hr clinical without smoking. The women in my class are very supportive as is my instructor (I still think she gave me COPD patients on purpose). It really helps that they now make sugarless gum that keeps its flavor for an hour...

angelwingsamy · Mar 19, 2008

i quit almost 9 months ago. (during the week of a final exam btw)

i knew that i wanted to quit for a while. i lacked the willpower to do it. i would sit and listen day after day about how bad smoking was. smoking smoking smoking nag nag nag. lol. (my teacher was an ex-smoker). i guess she knew how to lecture to us to get us to quit because i quit early.

i knew that all the hospitals around were going to go to non-smoking facilies (even the parking lots) so i knew that i would have to quit. i told myself that i was going to quit when i graduated. i couldnt wait that long. i was so sick of smoking that i wanted to do it during the holidays. somewhere between thanksgiving and christmas i was done. did i quit? nope. because i knew it wasnt a good time. but thats when i decided to set a date earlier than graduation. i decided to set it for the day of my final in my last class of the year.

when that class came i was so sick of smoking. i couldnt take it anymore. i told my doc about it and she gave me chantix and i started taking it. i ended up quitting before the set date and have not had a smoke since. i stopped taking the chantix early so i dont know if that was the reason i quit or if it was because i was really done with it.

times have been hard. im not going to lie. but for the most part i have been stress free since i quit. i almost asked a friend for a smoke ONE time since i quit. (my hubby quit with me--making it that much easier) i used to think that if i could just go outside and have a smoke that i would relax or whatever. NOT THE CASE. i have realized now that its just stepping away from the situation that relaxes you. the smoke does nothing. i have more time on my lunches or breaks and enjoy life alot more now.

i can run without thinking im gonna die.....lol. i dont smell like smoke anymore. i have saved $5 a day. WOW! and my kids are so happy and proud of me.

good luck with quitting! its one of the best things i ever did!

caroline h · Mar 19, 2008

I had quite prior to starting school. Sad to say I started to smoke while in school ( what a role model). I just passed my boards ( 4days ago) I plan to quite again...

good luck!!

NurseToBe20100102 · Mar 19, 2008

You can do it!!! I would agree with everyones reply, would u want a nurse who smelt like cigarette smoke helping you??? Not to judge people, but they probably would judge you as being less able/smart than you were. (for possibly giving urself cancer)..... :twocents: