My patients dad drinks/smokes

Nurses LPN/LVN

Published

Hello, I am a home health nurse for a pediatric patient. My patients parent smokes marijuana and drinks alcohol (beer) on a daily basis. He started as early as 6 am (when my shift starts). I have not seen him disoriented or unbalanced. He carries a conversation with me well and never stutters or makes me feel like he is being unsafe when caring for my patient. I wanted to know when it’s time for me to report it to my supervisor? Should I just let them know it’s going on? Also, my patient is on oxygen and a tracheostomy. I have noticed a couple times he’ll light his lighter but in his room or the bathroom, NEVER in my patients room.
He has told me that other nurses have complained on the past to the office and talks bad about them, obviously the office is aware of this ongoing situation.

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I would definitely report the smoking in a written communication note. And frequently use oxygen safety, precautions as your teaching topic, documenting thoroughly your teaching on your nurses note. As for the rest, a factual one time communication note to indicate this is occurring is sufficient. If the situation bothers you to a great extent, then find a new case, and/or a new agency, because your agency has no intention of getting involved. Typical agency behavior. The ultimate ending to all of this is that the agency will be happy to see that you are no longer receiving work assignments from them. Trust me, I have found this is what happens to nurses who bring up problems that the agency does not, will not, or can not address. They get rid of the "complaining" nurses.

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Specializes in Pediatric Home Health.

I agree that it should be reported to your supervisor. It’s a safety issue for you and the patient.

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On 2/26/2020 at 7:07 AM, JustyourtypicalLVN said:
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Home health is all about the patient's care. If the dad is in another room smoking pot, then your job is to continue providing nursing care to the patient and keep him/her healthy and to protect them from harm. If you don't mind someone doing odd things in their own house then just document and keep going.

I know that sounds like I'm saying "who cares", but I've been in home health long enough to see similar things.

Bottom line: keep your patient safe.

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12 minutes ago, Floor_Nurse said:

Home health is all about the patient's care. If the dad is in another room smoking pot, then your job is to continue providing nursing care to the patient and keep him/her healthy and to protect them from harm. If you don't mind someone doing odd things in their own house then just document and keep going.

I know that sounds like I'm saying "who cares", but I've been in home health long enough to see similar things.

Bottom line: keep your patient safe.

No , I like honesty. I agree, I do feel like my agency at this point is over me reporting it to them so I just document . Thank you so much

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