drug tests and ambien

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hello everyone!

Recently, I was offered a job at a hospital. I have a urine drug test in about two weeks, and was told to bring any prescriptions with me. My concern: I take 10 mg Ambien, every night. I have a PRN prescription for it and have been taking it for years. Can I be denied employment because of this?

The reason why I'm concerned is because of my daily use of this prescription, even though it's classified as "PRN". If that makes any sense. I don't take more than 1 a day, but still...reasonable concern or am I stressing for no reason?

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Specializes in adult psych, LTC/SNF, child psych.

If you have a legal prescription and are taking it as prescribed, it shouldn't be a problem. I'm not even sure Ambien would show up on a drug test, but I would go ahead and bring the prescription bottle with you to let them know that if they do find it, you're taking it legitimately.

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+1 on take the bottle with you. My only concern would be the possibility of a false positive (in this case, on the benzodiazepine panel) - if you've got the bottle with you, the most likely response would be "mmm..." and you finish filling out your entry paperwork.

Other than that, sounds like you got the gig - congratulations! :cat:

----- Dave

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Specializes in Critical Care.

It's still rare, but my employer does screen for legally prescribed medication use, at my facility you can't work in direct patient care and take ambien XR.

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My experience with doing drug screens (as a job ;) ) all results are sent to the mro.... only he can see results and they will contact you. If you have a valid rx and can prove it. .... any positive will be turned into a negative result. This is ALL the employer gets. Even with instant tests all non-negatives go to lab and mro before results are given to employer

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Specializes in Critical Care.
My experience with doing drug screens (as a job ;) ) all results are sent to the mro.... only he can see results and they will contact you. If you have a valid rx and can prove it. .... any positive will be turned into a negative result. This is ALL the employer gets. Even with instant tests all non-negatives go to lab and mro before results are given to employer

It depends on what the employer has told the MRO they are screening for. The role of the MRO is to ensure that results given to the employer are valid based on the parameters given by the employer. If the employer is only screening for drugs used illegally, then the MRO will only report positive results when illegal drug use is confirmed in the judgment of the MRO, if the employer is screening for certain drugs/classes of drugs used illegally or not, then the role of the MRO is to report a positive result for the drug/class of drugs that the employer is screening for, which can be legally prescribed drugs.

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to be on the safe side of things...i'm just going to stop taking it for the next two weeks. i already quit smoking to take a hospital job, so what the hell. i will also still bring the script in.

very happy to be hired, but it feels like i live in soviet russia sometimes.

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Specializes in ER.

Ambien is a benzo and will show up in the urine drug screen. As long as you have a valid script for it, it should not be a problem. It will stay in the urine for approximately 1 week if you stop it. I caution you against stopping it cold turkey if you have been using it nightly for any length of time, as you may find you have a lot of trouble sleeping without it. Have you tried other sleep aids? Long term benzo use is not considered first line therapy for insomnia. Restoril is also a benzo, and shows up as such in the uds. Lunesta is not a benzo, and does not show up in a uds.

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Ambien is a benzo...

Actually, I believe it's a non-benzo hypnotic.

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Specializes in Psychiatry.
Actually, I believe it's a non-benzo hypnotic.

This!

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Ambien in molecularly different than benzo's. I can't remember it's actual classification at the moment, but it should not show up as a benzo on a drug screen. It has it's own classification.

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I take zolpidem tartrate which is generic ambien, it is a sedative/hypnotic, not benzo. What people might be confused about is that in some cases it can cause a false positive for benzos on drug tests. I have been trying to not take it at night, but unlike quitting nicotine which was mostly just unpleasant, the side effects for ambien withdrawal can be dangerous.

From the people I have spoken to about this, including some who work for the same hospital, if you have a valid prescription there are no issues, and most drug tests don't even test for ambien.

To the nurse who works in a facility that that doesn't allow its employees working direct care with patients to take ambien...where is the line drawn anymore? It's mind boggling to me.

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