drug testing

Nurses General Nursing

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A friend of a friend is having a baby soon and I was wondering do they drug test upon admission? , do they watch you pee in a cup ? She is a really sneaky person and anyway she can get away with switching urine etc , she will.

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I have had 3 kids I don't remember them ever drug testing me.

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Where I live, they test the meconium.

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Specializes in ICU.

I think the bigger question here is why is your friend doing drugs while pregnant? I hope that if she is she does get drug tested and fails so that she and baby both get the help they need rather then her finding a way to beat the test...

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Specializes in Transitional Nursing.

I believe its more common for them to test baby if there is suspicion and in hospitals where it's standard procedure. They need consent to test mom, but they don't need it to test baby. If your friend has used, I would advise her to come clean with her doctor now so they can develop a plan for her and baby.

Meconium can be tested as well, which gives 9 months worth of information.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

It is highly dependent upon the state, as well as the individual facility. I've never heard of any facility that tested every woman who came in to deliver. Women are typically tested for "cause" (and that's where it's highly dependent upon the facility, or even the particular nurse). Typical reasons for testing would be: no or scant prenatal care, history of drug use/abuse in past or during pregnancy, precipitous delivery, placental abruption, or suspicious behavior while in the hospital that would suggest being under the influence.

A woman needs to provide consent to be tested. She does not have to provide consent to test the newborn. For the newborn, they typically collect urine and meconium (which gives information about maternal drug use from about 20 weeks' gestation, not the entire 9 months as another posted stated).

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They tested all babies at the hospital where we had our youngest. They gave us a brochure after admission that explained the policy. A nurse told us it was because they had gotten complaints about profiling.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
They tested all babies at the hospital where we had our youngest. They gave us a brochure after admission that explained the policy. A nurse told us it was because they had gotten complaints about profiling.

Seems like a dumb, expensive solution for something that could be solved through a better policy and better staff education.

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Specializes in Ortho/Med-Surg, L&D, Observation/ER.

I work on a Labor and Delivery unit. We do urine drug screens on every patient that comes in, regardless of whether or not they have history. We used to only do a UDS if they have a previous drug history, no prenatal care, or we were suspicious. These patients also get tested during pregnancy at their OB offices. At a certain point in the pregnancy, we get their prenatal histories sent to us. We don't watch them, most often they go into the bathroom alone. We have occasional patients that insist on a friend/spouse go into the bathroom with them, and we can get a little suspicious. If their drug screen comes back positive, we send a segment of the umbilical cord to do a tox screen and we order a social work consult. If we are not able to get a UDS on a patient, we will put cotton balls in the baby's diaper to collect urine and test it that way. In my opinion, I don't think it is a terrible thing to test EVERY patient, regardless of history, but that is just me.

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Specializes in Critical care.

I always wondered if the patient has to pay for these tests that are mandated because someone gets a bug up their behind. Always wondered if they have to pay for the MRSA tests that the hospital wants too. None of this seems right, especially now that cannabis is legal a lot of places and pregnant moms are using it

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None of this seems right, especially now that cannabis is legal a lot of places and pregnant moms are using it

Speechless.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
I always wondered if the patient has to pay for these tests that are mandated because someone gets a bug up their behind. Always wondered if they have to pay for the MRSA tests that the hospital wants too. None of this seems right, especially now that cannabis is legal a lot of places and pregnant moms are using it
That any pregnant woman willfully taking any drug without the explicit consent of her MD mind boggling.

I got permission to have benadryl once.

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