How are nurses saved from hazards in your environment

[Larry]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1355213,00.html

Nurses can turn down home visits to smokers

Nurses can refuse to make home visits to patients who smoke, according to new guidelines to be issued by the Royal College of Nursing.

The move follows the government's public health white paper which promised to create a smoke-free NHS work environment by 2006.

It also follows news of Pennine NHS acute hospitals trust's announcement that it wants to ban patients from smoking in their own home when they are visited by its health professionals - including midwives - as part of its commitment to create a smoke-free environment for staff.

This is the UK where tobacco firms don't get sued like in the USA.....

Of course we wish they could.........

How are nurses saved from hazards in your environment?

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

I think it's great that they offering home nurses a choice. Personally it wouldn't bother me to go to a smokers home, but I would ask them not to smoke during my visit. If they choose to smoke anyway while I was there, it would be nice knowing that I wouldn't have to go back.

I'm not sure what HH agencies here do, as I'm not an HH nurse. :)

[donmurray]

I think the thread title is misleading, as is the first line of the article which is quoted. This is about risk assessment. Nurses are being reminded that they can refuse to enter a home where the occupant is actually smoking, and the nurse will be exposed to second-hand smoke, not that they can refuse care to smokers.

It's an updated interpretation of our existing health and safety legislation. A nurse can refuse to enter a house where a dog is loose, in case it bites. She need not expose herself to a hazardous environment. Where abortion links in, I can't imagine.

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

The title is misleading. "How are nurses saved from hazards in your environment" is LarryG's last line. Title changed to that.

P_RN moderator all forums