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Hey everyone,
I am finishing up my clinical rotations this week at an LTC and I had a patient that wanted to go out for a cig...the facility was no smoking and I would have to take her out to the end of the parking lot down this paved trail where there is a bench and she could smoke there. When I asked the NM if it was okay she had to go through her chart to see if there was an approval for the family. I am just wondering what if a patient wants to smoke even if the family does not want them to? Do they have a "right" to smoke even though they know all the risks, etc. and know they need to be supervised and brought off the facility property? I know that many hospitals and LTCs have smoke-free grounds, but I just thought it was unusual that a patient needs permission from the family to smoke..don't have the right to as long as staff have time to take them to the designated area?
Thank you so much for your input.