Smoking nurses

SmilingBluEyes · Jan 8, 2003

like i said, this issue includes all noxious odors, smoke, perfume, cleaning solvents. It's not just smoke that bothers many of us.

mattsmom81 · Jan 9, 2003

Speaking of cleaning solvents...any of you ever get a whiff of full strength Virex into your lungs?? Some idiot forgot to dilute it, I tried to clean a blood spill......4 of us were in the ER with CP, SOB and coughing our lungs up. One of the group with asthma ended up hospitalized with a chemical pneumonia. That stuff is awful!!

I know so many nurses who get sick when the housekeepers strip, clean and rewax floors...

Why don't facilities care?!? Aussie, I think I'd talk to a lawyer about that 'alternative therapy' in use that you are allergic too...you may have some legal recourse. Here's hoping!

bossynurse · Jan 9, 2003

I don't mind the scented lotions, most are not noxious. But why???? do some staffers feel the need to wear purfume to work in hospital of all places. Why bother you end up smelling like latex and nasty hospital soap or some bodily fluid. The perfume just mixes in with all of the other lovely hospital smells and oh what a lovely mix that is. Not!

nursechris1 · Jun 7, 2003

We do get MANY complaints about staff smelling like smoke. It, along with perfume smells, can be very nauseating, especially to someone who is dying. Would it be so hard for a nurse to Not smoke in her car on the way to a patients house?

gizzy76 · Jun 8, 2003

I quit smoking in January and am so happy that I did so...regardless of the stresses of the job. Infact, I quit 2 days after writing my licensure exam. It has went surprisingly well for me, but some days at work I wish I still did smoke because then I would take my breaks.

hogan4736, BSN, RN · Jun 8, 2003

I laugh at smokers...

Especially the ones who gather around the kiosk 100 yards from their place of work all gathering around sucking the cancer stick...

Take all the breaks you want...I don't care! It's not about that.

No offense meant, I just think it's a silly ritual...

And the addiction thing? Both my parents smoked for 30+ years, and quit together one day COLD TURKEY!

Neither has smoked a cigarette in over 7 years...

IT CAN BE DONE!

My mom swears the "addiction was in her head"

hogan4736, BSN, RN · Jun 8, 2003

Oh, and maybe a different topic, but don't whine to me that you're broke, and you have "this pesky cough" and you "can't afford Tylenol" (a patient's words, NOT mine) and then immediately (after the intake) go outside to smoke a cigarette while waiting to see the doc for your cough and fever...

sbic56, BSN, RN · Jun 8, 2003

Originally posted by Streamlined
To Chrissy,

Please stop smoking. Make it your number one priority right now this minute. You need all the oxygen the air will allow in order to concentrate and do well in your studies. You need the money that cigarettes are usurping to buy your textbooks, your uniforms, your brand new shiny stethescope. You need endurance to get yourself to the gym, on a walk,, to the pool, etc to help keep your body strong for your education and your livelihood. Last but not least, you need to lead by example, and that means you have to practice health-giving lifestyle choices. Cigarettes sap your strength, they cut a gash in your finances, they present a skewed image of you and they make you stink to high heaven. Don't blame stress;stress will never go away. Make yourself credible to yourself, your classmates and your patients by being as healthy as you can be. Don't hide behind the it's nobody's business line. A healthy person is good for the planet, a sickly one, especially a person who could have prevented her illness, is a leech to mother earth. Shape up, be responsible, good luck.

I love this post. I am an ex-smoker and while I imagine this post may have ticked me off back in the day, truer words have never been spoken; especially on the "stress relieving" excuse. In reality there is not much more stressful than needing a cigarette when you can't get away to have one!!

HARN · Jun 8, 2003

I think that a nurse can smoke if they choose. But smoke not for a way to deal with stress. There are many other ways to deal with stress. Plus leaving the floor many times a shift takes away from patient care & puts more stress on your co-workers. Being a smoker however does not make one a nurse. Inteligenc & caring make one a nurse along with many other traits.

jude11142 · Jun 9, 2003

Originally posted by renerian
People can say not to smoke inside but geeze we have a judge been picked up 8 times for DUI. Convicted once the other charges droped. Who knows why. Seems alcohol should be a more likely target LOL.

I don't smoke anymore but I think smoking inside is fine especially in a bar or bowling alley.

LOL.

renerian

I agree with you here. I am a smoker and I don't believe that raising taxes on cigarettes is going to make smokers quit. I also believe that alcohol harms/kills many so why doesn't the goverment put a high tax on it like they did with cigs??

You know, I get severe headaches when I am exposed to the scents of perfumes. At my old job(in an office), I would actually at times not only get headache but would become nauseated. Just being in an elevator with somebody who is swimming in perfume is enought to trigger a headache. Has anyone researched the long-term effects of being exposed to these scents?

I do not mean that smokers should be able to smoke where ever they chose. Before most restaurants turned into no smoking establishments, I would never think of smoking while somebody is eating. They should continue with smoking/no smoking sections though because when I go out to dinner, it is something I do for enjoyment and having a smoke before/after dinner is something that I enjoy. I am spending good money to dine out and I'll be you know what if I am going to go to an establishment that bans smoking. I know that this is a very touchy topic and both sides feel deeply about it. I suppose what I resent the most is the looks or comments people make when I am out somewhere and smoking. As I said before alcohol kills so many innocent people, yet nobody looks at somebody who is enjoying a beer or glass of wine and says, "your drinking harms me"........why? Nobody says anything when patrons have a few drinks and they become loud and obnoxious........everyone laughs and thinks it's pretty funny. Well, it's not funny when that persons actions hurts or kills somebody. Instead of knocking smokers, taxing us higher and higher, get tough on alcohol!!!!!!! Raise taxes on that.....Limit their drinks, have them hand in there keys..better yet ban drinking as I am sick of going to a restaurant and having to listen to drunken tales because they become so loud that you can't help but hear plus I am petrified when I am leaving and I have a driver who was just inside drinking in front of me swerving all over the road.

I could go on and on...........but I know that this debate has been going on for years and will continue to go on. So, that's it from me on the subject. I just get sooooooooo mad sometimes.

JUDE

KevinN · Jun 9, 2003

Jude 11142, I think you are overgeneralizing when you say "Nobody says anything when patrons have a few drinks and they become loud and obnoxious". I for one do not think drunk people are amusing or harmless. And I think alcohol should be highly taxed in addition to cigarettes not "instead of" cigarettes as you suggest.

Kevin

rebel_red · Jun 9, 2003

Then we could have high taxes on red meat...(Hey! I paid for your by-pass!) Sugar ( You know all that insulin you have been getting on medicare/medicaid..) Ok I know I am being totally facetious.

However the point I am trying to make is: I am so sick and tired of people pointing fingers and yelling "J'accuse!!". Fact is everything we say and do has an affect/impact/repercussion on others. At times I wonder how feasible it is to even expect people to be civil anymore. I see people day in and day out criticizing others but never looking to clean up their own "mess". It is just soooooo much easier to point than to look in the mirror...

Before anyone's panties/briefs get in a twist, this is not meant specifically to any of the posters on this BB. If it were I would address it as such.

I read somewhere once, that you can tell how civilized a society is by the number of laws they enact. The theory being the fewer laws, the greater the civility as people were "policing" themselves. Seems to me we are in deep doo. Just what will we legislate next?

Tres

off to have a beer and a cigarette, douse herself in perfume, eat a huge steak, while wearing a fur coat and pointing out everyone else's flaws...cause obviously I can't have any issues.......

end rant