My co-worker stinks like gin every morning!

[pawsomepooch47]

I have been working with a nurse for 15 years now who comes to work each morning smelling like her last drink, some days much stronger than others. Some days if i come in a few minutes after her I can smell it on the elevator she just rode up on. I and other nurses have addressed this in the past, at which time she took a leave for awhile, seemed to improve, but now is back to the usual stench. None of the managers seem to care anymore. I can't say as she acts impaired exactly, but if I was a patient and my RN reeked of booze, I might not be too happy! Would you?

[OCNRN63, RN]

I'm pretty good at telling a lot of the ETOH varieties apart...then again, detox is my area. You assess enough drunk patients and you can't help but develop the skill :)

That's really interesting; I guess if that's your area, you would be able to differentiate after a while. It just smells bad to me. (Some of it is tasty, but the smell? Not so much.)

[♑ Capricorn ♑]

Does she use breath spray?

[pawsomepooch47]

Does she use breath spray?

No, she uses garlic to try and cover it up.

[newtress, LPN]

When you say "gin" are you referring to that particular alcohol or just the smell of old alcohol in general. I was a dental assistant for many yrs before I became a nurse, and some of the staff including the dentist smelled of etoh every morning, almost exactly like someone who had been drinking hours prior. Even some patients smelled that way when they opened their mouth or breathing through their nose. The culprit was regular use of mouthwash with the high etoh percentage in it. I don't like those mouthwashes for that reason alone, and we now have them available w/o it thank god. But I trust your assessment of this employee, as I'm sure your sniffer is as acute as mine.

[newtress, LPN]

I'd like to clear my reply out after reading all the previous replies. Came in late on the topic, but see that clearly there's been an established hx of this employee coming in "distilled." If she has been at this facility for many yrs, management is probably just waiting for her to retire out or I've found that in some scenarios there's some sense of pity going on for that employee. I was work assigned to an RN whose problem wasn't alcohol, it was close to psychotic anger. Nope, they wouldn't terminate her. If you have a better job opportunity on the horizon, I'd go. That's what I had to do because no communication with any level of management/administrators made any difference. I wish you the best, and hope nurse Ginny is close to retirement!

[Old.Timer]

What happened? Did you cover the shift? Did you let her work in that condition? Did you inform the manager?

Wow.

She picked herself up and game on in. I went around the corner to phone the admin on call.

I stalled waiting for admin and HR to get there . This was back in the days of narc keys and med carts. We counted but she never noticed that I hadn't actually given her the keys. I obviously stayed.