Nurses and smoking

[ashleyh_84]

Do you think it is ok if a nurse or a doctor smokes? Because i know when i go to the doctors office with my boyfriend and he tells him that he smokes that he gos on and on of how he shouldnt be smoking at all. But then we go outside and see nurses smoking and such!! So what do you guys think?

[Sable's mom]

I voted for "Other" because I think smoking is unprofessional, but it is not my place to tell other nurses something they already know (just like I wouldn't tell an overwi=eight nurse that they shouldn't eat the 5th Hershey bar).

[melsay, LPN]

As a smoker myself I can say, we ARE just as everyone else, just b/c we are in the health care profession doesn't mean we don't have rights. People do frown on smokers in general, I feel as long as it does not impede on patient care there should't be a prob. Hey and all the ther nurses out there that DO smoke, WASH hands after doing so, nothing worse than the smell of stale smoke on your hands and scrubs. :roll

[CCL"Babe", BSN, RN]

I really don't like the way tobacco smoke smells on smokers. I'm an ex-smoker. I try never to preach.

My hospital just made a policy that no one-visitors, staff, anyone is allowed to smoke on hospital property. I think that is very wrong. Patients are not allowed to leave the campus to smoke. Staff must cross the street to smoke.

This is to "promote healthy lifestyles" ... but what about all the fried food in the cafeteria?

[lateblumer]

I think that as healthcare professionals, we have an image to portray, that being one of health and well being.

A clean white uniform doesn't appear to be so clean when the person in it is surrounded by a cloud of smoke or smells like an ashtray.

Do our patients really believe the information we try to teach them when we reak of cigarettes? How honest is your word when smoking is one of the leading causes of death?

As an ex-smoker of 18 years, these were all things I considered on my way to quitting smoking.

[leeca]

Its their choice but l think they shouldn't smoke at work, nothing worse than seeing them huddled outside the hospitals puffing away.

[HazeK]

it is their choice, it is their body.....

it LOOKS very unprofessional and coflicts with principles of good health!

(sort of like if I, a fat person, give diet instructions to a new diabetic, while I'm eating a candy bar!.....but smoking is more acceptable)

Haze

[tattooednursie, LVN]

As you all know, I am a smoker, but there is no way I go out 5-6 times a day to smoke, and when I do go out, it is when I am ahead with my work, and my paitents are content. (Well some will never be content if you know what I mean) and I don't do this more that two times per shift, not including my lunch break. and when I do go out it will only be about 5 minutes, unless I strike up a good conversation with some one . . . 15 minutes at the most. Usually my times are after I have gotten most of my people up for dinner (Usually 4:45PM) and after the residents dinner before I get to lay them down (about 6:30)

I am considering cutting down though . . . not on the breaks, but on the ciggarettes. Yay, you all will be happy for me.

[Dave ARNP]

For a week straight during my NP training, we talked about nothing but risk prevention in our patients.

A biggie was smoking.

Guess what I did every time we took a break? You guessed it. My lighter met friends with a couple of Marlboro Lights.

Once I got into practice, being new to it, I was hot and heavy on weight loss, increasing activity, and yep... quitting smoking...

until...

One day, as I usually do I had had on my typical dress outfit, covered by my nice waist length lab coat. In my pocket was a pack of Marlboros. Stupid me thought you couldn't see them through material, but apparently you could.

I became aware of this, as while I was playing the "Good NP", educating a 40ish yr/old man about the health benefits of quitting smoking. He suddenly stopped me saying "Get down off the cross, Doc, somebody needs the wood!"

Stunned, I asked for further information, which lead him to point to the package in my jacket.

This patient has since stopped smoking, and since then, I have also changed my method of education.

I continue to inform my patients of the severe dangers of smoking. I provide them with extenisve education on the dangers, and bring the issue up frequently. I do, however make it clear that it IS a personal choice, one that must be made on a personal level. Many patients know I do smoke, however they also know that in doing it, I do now in anyway approve it.

I can't explain how I have managed to get that point accross, but somehow, I have, fairly successfully; especially with the >30 crowd.

Bottom line, it is a decision YOU have to make. But make sure you can be crediable when you begin to start a heavy anti-smoking attack.

David Bass

-ACNP,FNP

[RN~in~CT]

To each his own.

The worst I have seen was a pulmonologist who smoked in his office ~ not in front of the pts, of course ~ but you can imagine the lingering smell.

[live4today, RN]

Originally posted by ashleyh_84

Do you think it is ok if a nurse or a doctor smokes?

Being that a nurse or doctor is a human being with rights first above all else, they have the right to do whatever they choose to do as long as their rights do not infringe on the rights of others (that's according to our beloved Constitution).

Should nurses or doctors smoke? I wish the whole darn world would stop smoking, especially the ones who have children with asthma and ezema. It's not the smoke that hurts these kiddies, it's the lingering chemicals in the home, on their clothing, in the drapes and the furniture that does them in. So, for the sake of the children I wish no one smoked.

I wished all restaurants disallowed smoking which is what I miss about California. It's a health hazard, and a serious one. I avoid cigerette smoke at all cost wherever I go.

[prmenrs, RN]

I don't smoke, but it has nothing to do w/"professional image". It has to do w/which vices I chose to persue as a young adult. (There were only 3 @ that time, smoking drinking and sex.) I couldn't afford to smoke and eat, and my dates were more than willing to buy me a drink.

Little did I know @ the time, the thing that'll do me in is the EATING!!!! I'm glad I didn't smoke, though, because now I would just be a FAT smoker. The worst of all possibilities.

[Vadillo]

I quit it 20 months ago.