Nurses who smoke

Nurses Safety

Published

i would like to know anyone's opinion on nurses who smoke. i know someone who works in an outpatient cancer center, and on her breaks she smokes outside while patients are going in and out of the building (and they see her smoking). do you think it is positive for a nurse to smoke, and then educate her patients about not smoking? especially infront of a lung cancer pt??? :stone

this post is just for your view on this issue, and i am a neutral. i have been a smoker for several years, and i will be graduating from nursing school in the spring. many people including my instructors have been so negative towards my smoking, i just want to know what to expect when i get into the work place. are nurses ok with this? i know that its bad for me, and i know i should quit, but thats easier said then done. any suggestions???

sorry for the original typo's, you guys can be harsh on the spelling errors :imbar

Specializes in Psych, Psych and more Psych.
I am a new garad and am disgusted by any nurse who will sit and preach to a poor patient

Oh, you must be talking about those "Reverend Nurses" :wink2:

None of the regular nurses I work with are preachers, just care givers and educators.

Mary

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Psych, Psych and more Psych.
I am a new garad and am disgusted by any nurse who will sit and preach to a poor patient

Oh, you must be talking about those "Reverend Nurses" :wink2:

None of the regular nurses I work with are preachers, just care givers and educators.

Mary

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I don't care if you smoke or drink or like perfume. If you are an adult, you have the right to do all these. But I think all of these are totally inappropriate at the hospital ....

Please, if you care about anyone else around you, do your smoking--- (and wear your perfume)--- at home where the residues won't bother your patients and coworkers Oh, and forget the Febreeze and gum; they make it worse, really. You can't hide the stink that easily and the perfumy Febreeze may cause an allergic or asthmatic response in sensitive people. The residues of smoke/nicotine make some of us SICK. Do us a favor and leave it at home. Especially your patients who cannot get away from the stench of smoke or perfume so easily as I can.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Critical Care.

Smokers stink. You can smell it on them a mile a way and for patients with breathing problems it is horrible. Smokers abuse breaks and nonsmokers get stuck covering, I know many will disagree but it is a fact. If you want to smoke it is your right but I am glad that many hospitals are going smoke free. It is horrible to have to hold your breath to get in and out of building so you don't breath that in.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

wow the hostility is incredible in this thread. From the guard dog attack behaviour over spelling and the blistering hatred of smokers it makes me wonder what kind of nurse you can be when you are so viciously judgemental....Is this how you talk to your patients?

It is none of the nurses business..drop the holier than thou attitude and stop judging... a nursing license doesn't mean you are the better most wonderful person...it means you finished a college program.

If you have an issue with a smoking collegue stop whining and complaining about how terribly hard done by you are...say no you wont cover the patients for a smoke break if the coworker asks during a non break time and get over yourself.

This constant complaining about situations you have complete control over is ridiculous...just say no

If the coworker wants to go for a smoke during their break it's none of your business...just do your job and cover the patients...if the smoker abuses the breaks tell them and tell the manager.

I can tell you that I say god bless all smokers without them I wouldn't have a job.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Very Good post Moia!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
It does not matter how a person spends thier 15 minute break. Anyone can leave the floor so to say, you do not get to leave is not true, you choose to stay on your floor and use the excuse that "smokers get to leave" I have many times watched other nurses patients so they could get off the floor and go shopping in the gift shop, oh and by the way most stay much longer then 15 minutes! Smoking is bad for everyone, but I feel it might be time that nonsmokers stop using it as an excuse.
I happen to agree with you, sharonrn94, although I am a smoker and do ask to cover my patients I do this when all my priorities are taken care of and certainly do not mind if someone askes me to watch their patients....it is there business why they want to leave the unit. Working as a team sure does make life easier. As far as smoking and being a nurse......everyone is human and has their ways of handling stress......For most people smoking is not an "option" it is an addiction and a Nurse should definetly understand that. :p At the same token I certainly am not going to smoke in front of my patients because of the encouragement I would like to give my patients with smoking cessation. I do not want to cause any temptation for them although, if patient was to ask me if I do smoke, I would certainly answer honestly.
Up Vote Up Vote ×

I can tell you that at the facility I last worked as soon as the 3-11 shift started (that's when you are allowed to smoke out front...otherwise during the day they must go to the back smoking area) there is a steady group of LPN's and RN's out there puffing away. Personally, I despise smoking. I think in some ways it is how people bond. I know, because I am not a smoker, I do not get invited "out for a smoke". I am the only one on my unit who does not smoke...so I am left out of a lot of small talk and gossiping and commadary.

I have tried to join them "to get fresh air"...but the air ain't so fresh when you are surrounded by cigerette smoke...and the headaches weren't worth it

I think there was an episode of "Friends" where Jennifer Aniston works for Calvin Klein and she takes up smoking so she could get in with her boss so she can attend a business trip..she ends up coughing and gagging and another co-worker who was really a smoker gets the trip with the boss due to all the bonding and chatting they had been doing on their smoke breaks

Maybe this is a crazy spin on the topic...leave it to me to come up with it :uhoh3:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I can tell you that at the facility I last worked as soon as the 3-11 shift started (that's when you are allowed to smoke out front...otherwise during the day they must go to the back smoking area) there is a steady group of LPN's and RN's out there puffing away. Personally, I despise smoking. I think in some ways it is how people bond. I know, because I am not a smoker, I do not get invited "out for a smoke". I am the only one on my unit who does not smoke...so I am left out of a lot of small talk and gossiping and commadary.

I have tried to join them "to get fresh air"...but the air ain't so fresh when you are surrounded by cigerette smoke...and the headaches weren't worth it

I think there was an episode of "Friends" where Jennifer Aniston works for Calvin Klein and she takes up smoking so she could get in with her boss so she can attend a business trip..she ends up coughing and gagging and another co-worker who was really a smoker gets the trip with the boss due to all the bonding and chatting they had been doing on their smoke breaks

Maybe this is a crazy spin on the topic...leave it to me to come up with it :uhoh3:

Well consider yourself lucky for two reasons....u Don't smoke and u don't get to hear all the negative talk! :D
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
If you have an issue with a smoking collegue stop whining and complaining about how terribly hard done by you are...say no you wont cover the patients for a smoke break if the coworker asks during a non break time and get over yourself.

If the coworker wants to go for a smoke during their break it's none of your business...just do your job and cover the patients...if the smoker abuses the breaks tell them and tell the manager.

I can tell you that I say god bless all smokers without them I wouldn't have a job.

It IS my business if I have to gag the minute said coworker comes back from her smokebreak...and causes allergic responses in me or my patients. That much IS my business. I don't care if they smoke. I am not assigning a moral judgment on him/her for smoking cigarettes. I just with they do it ON THEIR TIME AT HOME----it's all I ask.

I am gonna celebrate when this hospital, in which I currently work, goes nonsmoking on-campus the way the one I used to work at did. Then, it wont' be an issue of covering the stench with febreeze, gum or other weak means that do not work. It won't be a matter of abuse of breaks to smoke. It WILL mean I won't I have to walk through a gauntlet of smoke to get into my own work place. How nice that will be....one day.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I would love to see smoke free campuses a new law for all facilities. Being in New York, I have enjoyed the new "Smoke Free New York". It is much more enjoyable to go for dinner or drinks now...accept you do have to walk past a group of smokers to get in the place

Another thing it makes me think of...at my previous job there was an older security guard...probably in his 60's...he was kind of a swaggering man with an earring and feaythered back white hair...(eeewww...creepy)

He was always taking smoke breaks with these young CNA's. Everytime I arrived or left there he was...puffing away..making salascious inappropriate banter with a group of young female ruffians in a cloud of smoke. THey told them all of their business and he told all the others..and each night in continues in a big cloud of smoke

would you believe his "girlfriend" is a supervising RN?? I even had one of the CNA's tell me how they would share a few cigerettes in his van when it was too cold and he would rub her back, because he knows how hard her job is

I guess now you know why I hope for smoke fre campuses! Yuk!!!!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I understand it is the hospitals right to decide if people can smoke on their property, but they cannot tell someone what to do on an unpaid lunch. A paid break, yeah okay, but not an unpaid lunch. No one will convince me that they have the right to decide that...just like the other thread about having to wear dressy business type clothes to work until changing into scrubs. No way would I do it...I would launch the biggest protest you ever saw. My time is my time and that's it!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment