My partner has decided that he wants to be a nurse and I wanted him to get a good idea of what he was getting into before he started taking classes so he took the nursing assistant course and got a job at my hospital on a Med/Surg floor.
He seems to like it a lot more than I had expected (I know that being a CNA can be rough) and has a lot of enthusiasm for the job. We've run into old patients at Walmart and other places in our town and they all have praised him for treating them or their family so well during their hospital stay. He's gotten great feedback from his co-workers and managers about how quickly he's caught on to the job for having no prior patient care experience.
Here's the problem:
He was pulled into the office and told by his managers that it was reported to them he smelled of "old alcohol" during one of his shifts. I didn't understand this terminology but he explained that it meant that he wasn't drinking on the job but perhaps had too much the night before. His managers didn't document any of it, it was "off the record" and laughed it off and told him not to worry about it but wanted him to be aware that someone had said something to them. Of course he was still humiliated by this and started obsessing about using deoderant, mouthwash, etc. because he sweats easily and is not used to such a physically demanding job and thought he was offensive to his co-workers.
Another month went by and he was pulled into the office again and was told that the charge nurse smelled alcohol on him on a previous shift. Coincidentally, this second incident occurred right after he confronted this charge nurse that she was being rude and hard on him. I personally found this woman to be rude in my own experience when transferring patients to her and she has no idea that we are together or even know each other at this point, so I can imagine that she probably doesn't treat the CNA's too well either.
This time one of the two managers has since changed her story and now claims that she too smelled it on him during the first incident. The other manager is on his side and is aware that her co-manager has changed her story from the first time and actually warned him to stay clear of her when they had a private conference together.
This time it was written up and I looked it over at home. His job performance continues to be superior, they both emphasized at his meeting with them that there have been no patient safety or behavioral issues and that all of the nurses still believe him to be a great worker. Two of the staff RN's told him that they were approached by the managers and asked if they ever smelled alcohol on him and they both said never and had no idea what they were talking about.
I started thinking that maybe he did have a problem and perhaps I was in deep denial. We drive to work together and work almost all of the same days. We also take our lunch breaks together and I've never noticed an alcohol smell or any behavioral indications that he'd been drinking or even hung over.
We do both drink and sometimes stop at the local bar after a hard shift and share stories as do many people.
We both weigh about the same and drink about the same but in 8 years of nursing I've never been told that I smell like alcohol at work. We're always in bed before 10 pm on any night that we have to work the next day so I'm not getting what's going on here.
Wouldn't the patients or families smell it on him too?
And why do some (or at least one) of the nurses smell alcohol on him but others think that the whole story is crazy?
What can or should we do about this?
I welcome all comments and suggestions even if you think he may have a problem as well.
He's humiliated and scared about his future in nursing going to pot over this.
P.S. A little off topic but it's part of why I'm so suspicious of this whole thing. The unit he works on has long had a bad reputation with other units including mine. My co-workers warned me about this unit from the beginning that the nurses are notorious for attempting to delay and refuse patients and try to get people into trouble once they do bring patients to them. I have been told many times that rooms weren't clean and ready when my partner will tell me at lunch that the room was clean and ready since he came on duty that morning and that they've been lying to me to keep from getting patients.
Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatric, Behavioral Health.
The problem with transferring to another unit is that it may be seen as an admission of guilt. I second the recommendation that Tweety gave (go back to his post). I wish the best for you and your husband.
Does your partner have any medical problems? This could be biological. Since he is not used to intensive work he could be breaking down enzymes or hormones that are causing the alcohol smell. We had a woman that reeked of "old" alcohol, she swore she never drank. They tested her right then and she was negative for alcohol and drugs. She followed up with her GP and it turned out that she had Type 2 diabetes. Please have him talk to his MD.
I worked with a nurse who excessively hung onto the 'old alcohol' smell too. She claimed she had had several glasses of wine with dinner the night before. A few supervisors went on a witch hunt and started trouble for her, writing her up, reporting her to the BNE, etc, simply on the evidence of 'odor'.
She got a lawyer and sued them bigtime and won. So many facilities do not know the laws regarding this type thing, and hang themselves trying to hang a nurse.
Your partner is not yet a nurse but due process is likely still an issue....contact someone so you know your rights. Even some medical conditions emit an odor similar to ETOH, so please check that out.
I also like Tweety's suggestions a lot! Good luck to you both!! :)
Specializes in Happily semi-retired; excited for the whole whammy.
What is your hospital policy on alcohol use at work? If the supervisor is now changing her story and claims she smelled alcohol why wasn't he sent home or an investigation started? It is a serious threat to patient safety to allow a coworker who you suspect of abusing alcohol at work to continue the shift. I would push that angle with anyone who brings up the issue. Also definately find out the policy and if questioned again, refer to it and follow all guidelines (my facility will send you for a breath test immediately) this should not only stop all problems, but will be the basis for any other wrongful actions taken. I work with my spouse as well and know the difficulties of other coworkers taking out their problems with him on me. Sad that some people feel the need to act this way. But if your partner is serious about keeping his job, either transfer to another unit or document every interaction with supervisors over the "alcohol" smell and follow thru to insure his reputation and job are safe.
I agree. If they believe he was drunk at work, then they are at fault for allowing him to stay. If they are claiming he has hygiene problems, it should be documented as such, with the same provisions everyone else has to appeal. (I know this story is gross, and not paritcularly on point, but I once worked with a guy who used to sweat what smelled like vegetable soup when it was hot and we were working hard. The supervisor wanted to write him up, but he went to HR with a doctor's note.) His reputation shouldn't be put on the line due to gossip and speculation. OTOH, I would also encourage the abstention experiment (except I wouldn't offer to pay for the test, I'd demand that the facility does. If they're going to make the accusation, then they can **** well pay to prove or disprove it)
Specializes in Emergency nursing, critical care nursing..
sounds like a setup to me. If he had alcohol on his breath, more than one would smell it. Stale alcohol from a big drinker will be noticible by many. I bet the staff tried to smell his breath after the manager asked them about if they smelled it or not. I would have him talk to the manager and have him tell her that he is feeling harrassed and can take action. With his strong work ethics and practice, it will make it hard for that supervisor to prove that his job is suffering. Higher management don't like confrontations.
think about it. If he isn't a drunk on the job, then he has nothing to worry about, right?
I just got back from having lunch with him and everything is going fine so far. His manager has not yet responded to his request for blood testing if they suspect him again.
If this happens again and they do refuse to blood test him, where do I go to get one done myself?
If he gets fired, can he still go to the ER and request a test? He'd still have insurance coverage but even if we just offered to pay for it would they do it? I've never worked ER so I'm not sure how that works. I'm afraid that his regular doc wouldn't just slide him into the clinic to do a blood test and timing would mean everything at this stage. If the blood test is not done right away, the results would be pointless, right?
I will make an appointment with his doc anyway at another poster's suggestion to see if in fact there is some other reason for the alcohol smell.
His only medical problem that we know of is acid reflux and he's on Prevacid for that.
Another funny thing is that he's never had this issue at any of his other jobs in his life.
Does your partner have any medical problems? This could be biological. Since he is not used to intensive work he could be breaking down enzymes or hormones that are causing the alcohol smell. We had a woman that reeked of "old" alcohol, she swore she never drank. They tested her right then and she was negative for alcohol and drugs. She followed up with her GP and it turned out that she had Type 2 diabetes. Please have him talk to his MD.
I worked with a nurse who excessively hung onto the 'old alcohol' smell too. She claimed she had had several glasses of wine with dinner the night before. A few supervisors went on a witch hunt and started trouble for her, writing her up, reporting her to the BNE, etc, simply on the evidence of 'odor'.
She got a lawyer and sued them bigtime and won. So many facilities do not know the laws regarding this type thing, and hang themselves trying to hang a nurse.
Your partner is not yet a nurse but due process is likely still an issue....contact someone so you know your rights. Even some medical conditions emit an odor similar to ETOH, so please check that out.
I also like Tweety's suggestions a lot! Good luck to you both!! :)
Did this lawsuit occur in Texas when you lived here?
No, he's not a nurse yet but I fear something like this following him around and coming back to haunt him later as an RN.
I'm not sure that I could even afford a lawyer if I needed one, which I shouldn't. He's going to school for RN and I'm in school for my BSN and we just bought a house last year.
And why wouldn't the hospital want to do a blood test before terminating someone that's willing to do it? You'd think it would cover their butt to confirm that someone was impaired on the job and avoid a lawsuit.
I just don't see how an RN assessment of smell is a positive confirmation of anything but in TX they can fire you for anything. I'm glad we don't live in Dallas anymore or I'd be worried about Group One as well.
We live in a one hospital town. The next nearest hospital is a good 30 miles away and it's HCA and I don't want him working for that evil organization.
Did this lawsuit occur in Texas when you lived here?
Yup. Wish I knew more details, but she was able to win big, so there are some legal protections involving accusations of drugs and alcohol in the workplace in Texas. Maybe call and ask a labor attorney there? Usually 1st consult is free. Good luck to you..and yes I'm happy to be out of Texas.
Just wanted to update those of you who participated in this thread.
I followed Tweety's advice over the past two plus months, and outside of some of our drinking friends believing that we've become reclusive, joined a cult, or just became plain unsociable, it really didn't cause any big changes in our lives.
We did drink some alcohol on two nights while we were in Dallas evacuating Rita (Poor coping mechanism I know, but we were quite freaked out at that time) but that's it during the past two months.
I haven't found any hidden bottles of liquor around the house or cars. I even looked in the toilet tank because I saw on TV once where an alcoholic was hiding booze in there.
No behavior changes in him at home and no further performance issues or accusations at work.
I wrote an e-mail to his manager for him letting her know firmly that even though she continually reminded him that TX is a "right to work" state and that she could fire him for anything at any time, that if this did indeed occur over some RN claiming to smell alcohol on him, that his being fired would be far from the end of it.
I also wrote that I was certain (although I really wasn't at that time) that there were only two nurses behind this whole thing whom he had problems with from the beginning and they were simply retaliating and this is illegal, even in TX.
Even though she kept insisting that the ball was in her court, she was concerned enough to forward my e-mail to human resources as well as the legal dept. at the hospital. (I found this out via inside sources.)
The next day she had a meeting with him asking if he had consulted a lawyer over the issue and that she thought that he had blown everything out of proportion and that he has "nothing to worry about so don't get so excited."
His manager then admitted to him that it was indeed the same two nurses that he had other issues with that reported him for smelling like alcohol and that all of the other staff that was asked during the investigation denied ever smelling it on him.
She has since changed his schedule, mutually agreed upon, so that he seldom works on the same days as these two RN's who work the same matrix.
If he does work the same days, he is put on the opposite end of the unit that has it's own separate nurse's station and he gets assigned to other RN's patients instead.
The other manager (the evil one) who backed up these claims has finally stopped coming by and getting close to his face in an obvious attempt to smell alcohol since he has started blowing right in her face when she gets close to let her know that he's aware of what she's doing.
I'm not sure that separating him from these two nurses is actually the right thing to do but what else should he do?
I'm also not sure if our backing down and allowing our employer to dictate what we can do on our own time is right either.
The good manager really wants to keep him and I can see she's trying to remedy the situation, but I'm still mad as @#&!! that our employer is clearly controlling what we do in our private lives off the clock.
Abstaining from alcohol may be a healthier way to live, but we're both well over 21 and should be able to make that decision for ourselves.
I don't think you should change your behavior when off the clock. You sound like responsible people. However I would INSIST on timely notification of any complaints that he is impaired, and a drug/alcohol test paid for by the employer. I'd also have a consultation with a lawyer (usually free) so you know your rights and how far someone can go with accusations before you can attack back legally. Communication in writing is essential, so you can track when and how the accusations were made, that you were trying to cooperate with the accusers to ensure safe patient care, and that they had no issues with the care given, just with the odor.
The fact that he has been told he is an exemplary employee is great, if you can get it in writing, even email. Just write a letter saying "this is to follow up on our conversation on xx date...you stated.......and we agreed that....." If they don't dispute your version you will be in better shape if you need to go further. It also shows that you are keeping track, and not going to just lie down and let them mess with his reputation.
Thunderwolf, MSN, RN
3 Articles; 6,621 Posts
The problem with transferring to another unit is that it may be seen as an admission of guilt. I second the recommendation that Tweety gave (go back to his post). I wish the best for you and your husband.