Do You take your patients out for smoke breaks?

[Meerkat]

We do, but I don't agree with it.

[StNeotser, ASN, RN]

Yes I have. Stage IV Lung cancer patient. I had the time to do it and she had already decided on going to hospice.

Don't really have the request made that often.

[leslie :-D]

i have, time permitting.

this was working at an inpt hospice facility.

i pretty much gave my pts whatever they wanted.

leslie

[jrbl77, RN]

we are going smoke free in sept, i don't smoke so i don't see this as a problem. however we do have alot of pts that go out to smoke, where do you draw the line? what about family members in crisis situations that do smoke- i know i would need to continue my bad habits such as chocolate if i had a family member in critical condition. will see how it goes.

[jmgrn65, RN]

We have a designated smoking facility for smoker patient and families, employees are not to smoke on the campus it is grounds for termination and it has always been like that (as long as I have been there).

I am on a tele unit so none of our patients are supposed to go smoke. But I don't think I have ever seen staff escort any patient out to smoke, I guess if they are well enough to smoke then they are well enough to get themselves to the smoking hut.

[GooeyRN, ADN, BSN, CNA, LPN, RN]

The last place I worked does allow pts to go out and smoke, but only with a staff or family member. I do not smoke (I am a former smoker) so I do not go outside with them. But it is always easy to find a smoking nurse or cna, or even the maintenance man to go out with them. Usually the smoking staff are happy to get an extra smoke break. But sometimes they get annoyed, since pts want to go with them everytime they go, and then they don't get any undisturbed time.

[StudyingRN]

Yes, I do. I am a tech, I am not a smoker and am dead set against it.....but I also try to keep my patients happy and comfy and for some that unfortunately means keeping them pumped full of nicotine. I do make them wait until I am able to leave the floor without it affecting another patients and as most of you know that doesn't happen very often. I have told patients straight up, "I can't go till I finish taking vitals and that is going to take a couple of hours counting charting and answering call lights in between patients". They seem to understand and usually wait patiently as long as I communicate that ahead of time.

I must tell you that as much as I hate it....the extra effort on my part is always appreciated and it usually makes for a happy and content patient, Lord knows we need more of those!

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Thankfully, this is a non-issue for me: hospital I'm starting in has no-smoking policy for everyone--patients, visitors, staff. NO smoking anywhere on their premises, period.

The subject came up during last semester of school, as there are other hospitals in the area that are not smoke-free. If I did work in one of those facilities, I personally would NOT be taking them out for a smoke. I'd be darned sure I'd be far too busy no matter WHEN they wanted to go. I am extremely sensitive to cigarette smoke, and there's no way I'd stand there while they were doing it. Not a moral viewpoint, just my own physical one! If there was another staff member who didn't mind (maybe a smoking staff member?) then that's up to them.

I can tell you, though, that ONE of my considerations with the hospital I'm going into is that they ARE smoke-free. Everyone knows when they walk (or crawl or are wheeled) through those doors what the rules are. Don't like it? You can leave and check in somewhere else!

[VirtualMe]

I live near a hospital, and I frequently see people outside smoking. I don't know what that hospital's rules are about where they can smoke, but it must be something like "so many feet from the entrance" or "this many feet from the edge of the building," because a great many of them move about half a block down the street and smoke... in front of an elementary school.

[jenmedsurgRN]

no, i won't. i'm a non-smoker and don't wanna inhale secondhand smoke. Though, usually one of the aides or other nurses that smoke will take the patient.

[RGN1]

Our hospital is a smoke free hospital. If patients want to smoke they have to go off grounds & sign a form stating that they are going out against medical advice & that they accept any consequences of their actions. Even with this form signed they are not allowed to go unless they are dressed in suitable outdoor clothes & are not attached to drips etc. We do not accompany them, it's their responsibility.

[Dabuggy]

At a nursing home I had clinicals in the pt's were allowed to go out for a smoke. At one hospital we had to chart when a pt went outside to smoke against medical advice. RGN1's hospital sounds like they are one step ahead of us.

The MD's thinking is to protect those with asthma against hypersensitivity to even the smell of tar, nicotine, smoke, etc.

Dabuggy

[twinmommy+2, ADN, BSN, MSN]

Our hospital has a smoking area that is not a normal entrance/exit for the hospital. Therefore nonsmokers really don't get hit with it unless someone is smoking where they arn't supposed to.

I have taken patients to smoke. One reciently was assualted and was very unnerved by the whole event. The Dr. told her adamatly no, under no circomstances will she smoke. But the woman had been through so much and was so uneasy that I gave in and she had someone with her at all times.