Drug testing

Nurses General Nursing

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I am prescribed medical marijuana for sleep aid. I was wondering what the general consensus was regarding drug testing policies. I expect to be drug tested upon hiring, as this has been the case when I worked in a hospital setting. However I want transition into home health hospice care.

Can you guys share with me your personal experience with random drug testing? I am not an experienced nurse.

My doctor could put me back on ambien but that stuff gave me intense headaches.

Thanks

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Specializes in UR/PA, Hematology/Oncology, Med Surg, Psych.

Even if medical marijuana is legal in your state and you have a valid prescription, you are at risk of your license being suspended or revoked by the BON. Or as it is more likely, you may be placed in the substance abuse program through the BON in your state.

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Well what if I refuse to take the drug test? It's so dumb imo that this is an issue.

But have you ever been randomly drug tested?

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Specializes in Critical Care and ED.

The issue is that whatever its status is in your state, it's still illegal at a Federal legal and is a class I drug. If you test positive you will not only be unemployable, you will be subject to license problems from your state board. You might have to face possible enforced mandatory drug programs that will cost you a lot of money and put limitations on your ability to practice. If you refuse to test you will be fired or not get hired. Nursing has one of the most, if not THE most, stringent drug policies of any profession. Its not worth it, in my opinion, to continue to use this drug knowing the implications. If I were you I'd spend a little time on the Nurses Recovery page and read some of the threads about what some people have to go through to keep their licenses. Your opinion of how dumb it is is really irrelevant at this point...no disrespect meant. I'm a chronic pain patient myself, and would jump at the chance to take it, but there's no way I'd risk everything I've worked for.

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Specializes in Oncology.

Your opinion doesn't matter at all. If you refuse to take the drug test, they'll refuse to hire you.

My facility doesn't so drug tests. I have been offered medical marijuana by one of my providers for crippling chronic pain. I don't accept because I know other facilities in my area do hair follicle testing and I don't want to hurt my career mobility potential in the future. Sometimes you need to make choices.

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What state do you live in?

Your opinion doesn't matter at all. If you refuse to take the drug test, they'll refuse to hire you.

My facility doesn't so drug tests. I have been offered medical marijuana by one of my providers for crippling chronic pain. I don't accept because I know other facilities in my area do hair follicle testing and I don't want to hurt my career mobility potential in the future. Sometimes you need to make choices.

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Specializes in A variety.
I am prescribed medical marijuana for sleep aid. I was wondering what the general consensus was regarding drug testing policies. I expect to be drug tested upon hiring, as this has been the case when I worked in a hospital setting. However I want transition into home health hospice care.

Can you guys share with me your personal experience with random drug testing? I am not an experienced nurse.

My doctor could put me back on ambien but that stuff gave me intense headaches.

Thanks

Some facilities do, others don't. It's a challenging question because you naturally don't want to ask the employer. They may or may not reveal if they do or not during your orientation. I'm pretty sure it states in their policy that you agree to submit to one if requested. Whether or not they will is another question. And if you've been at a facility long enough to discover they really don't do it, the other risk you take is if it is required by incident. I'll give you a couple examples. I was a case manager/nurse supervisor for a home health agency. One of the patient's mother thought a nurse's behavior was bizarre, wondering if she was on drugs. She mentioned it to another one of the nurses that also cared for the patient. That nurse in turn told me. I had to tell my director which resulted in that nurse having to go do a random drug test. She was clean. Imagine if she enjoyed a joint on her leisure time but wasn't actually high at the time of the accusation. She would be treated as such with that positive drug screen.

I sympathize with you. I hope the government and the medical field get over this marijuana thing and stop ruining peoples lives over it. Quite ironic that alcohol, cigarettes and narcotics which kill by the hundreds of thousands yearly are acceptable so long as you don't come to work impaired by either but weed, no.

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What is it about this stuff that makes people wiling to risk everything? Throwing your education and hard work down the drain would make it even more difficult to sleep.

It's impossible to predict every situation you might encounter or what your exact chances of being caught are, but you know there's some sort of chance ....why, why, why is this "non-addictive" substance worth it?

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Specializes in Oncology.
What is it about this stuff that makes people wiling to risk everything? Throwing your education and hard work down the drain would make it even more difficult to sleep.

It's impossible to predict every situation you might encounter or what your exact chances of being caught are, but you know there's some sort of chance ....why, why, why is this "non-addictive" substance worth it?

I expect 50 years from now everyone will have awful diseases from it and all tell their grandchildren "We didn't know how bad it was for you back when I started but you definitely shouldn't smoke."

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I know of very few facilities that don't drug test. If they accept federal money like Medicare they have to.

It doesn't matter how dumb you think it is, it is federally illegal. There are lots of other sleep aids if you don't want to take ambien.

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Specializes in A variety.
I expect 50 years from now everyone will have awful diseases from it and all tell their grandchildren "We didn't know how bad it was for you back when I started but you definitely shouldn't smoke."

What does that have to do with this conversation? A nurse can smoke cigarettes without jeopardizing their license, and we know what diseases that causes right now.

What is it about this stuff that makes people wiling to risk everything? Throwing your education and hard work down the drain would make it even more difficult to sleep.

It's impossible to predict every situation you might encounter or what your exact chances of being caught are, but you know there's some sort of chance ....why, why, why is this "non-addictive" substance worth it?

I agree it's not worth the risk. In time this should no longer be an issue. I have a better question. Why why why are we ok with the hypocrisy behind why people, and especially medical professionals, can't have it considering the other drugs they can have?

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
I know of very few facilities that don't drug test. If they accept federal money like Medicare they have to.

Actually, that's not true. Drug testing for employees is exempt from CMS regulations. Or rather, drug testing employees is not a requirement of CMS.

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