Nurses and smoking

Tutti · Feb 28, 2004

Originally Posted by fiestynurse
A 54 year old, very well liked, nurse that I know was just diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer. Beautiful, beautiful person. Of course, she has always been a heavy smoker. She has gone through chemo and radiation and has lost all her hair. The other day I saw her standing outside smoking a cigarette! I just don't get it! Yes, it is a personal choice, but it still makes me mad as hell!
What's not to get? You must be a non-smoker. It doesn't seem to shock people all that much when a heroin addict goes through rehab or almost dies with an overdose, and starts up again. What's the difference. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who has never smoked shouldn't even speak and those who have quit, great, but don't go around preaching, you didn't like it either when you were a smoker. It's a horrible horrible addiction that all smokers wish they never had started.

fiestynurse · Feb 28, 2004

My husband's doctor was telling him during his last physical that he needed to lose some weight. My husband turned to this obese doctor and said, "looks like you could lose a few pounds too doc." The doctor had no credibility with my husband and my husband has never lost the weight. Look at all the bad press that Dr. Atkin's got in regards to his postmortem weight, by people trying to discredit his diet. Look at the success of Richard Simons! Why do you think so many morbidly obese people are drawn to him?

An actively using heroin addict turns to another actively using heroin addict and tells him that he should really stop using heroin because it's going to kill him. The heroin addict laughs in his face. Then a recovering heroin addict, 10 years clean and sober, comes up to him and tells him how great his life is now and the actively using heroin addict starts crying - that guy has credibility and that guy he listens to. It is the whole basis of the NA program.

What I am trying to say is that when a nurse, who use to be a smoker, tells a patient to quit and educates him on how to do it - that nurse has credibility! A smoking nurse telling a smoking patient to quit is seen as a hypocrite. This is my response to the original question posted.

I am not trying to be preachy. I am just expressing my thoughts and feelings on the subject. You can smoke all you want, but don't expect to have any credibility with patients on this topic. And if you are my friend don't expect me not to feel sad and angry when you are given 6 months to live at the age of 54. I never bugged my friend about quitting. I never said a thing. Now I wish I would have bugged the heck out of her.

PedsNurse1981 · Mar 29, 2004

I don't smoke, never have, never will. It seriously gets on my nerves when people smoke around me. Kill yourself on your own time, in your own home, but don't subject my lungs to the poison. I work with a lot of cystic fibrosis kids who fight everyday just to breathe. I can't believe those of us who are born with a perfectly good set of lungs would destroy them this way. Come look at my CF kid that I'm taking care of right now that's end stage. I'm sure he'd love to have been born with the lungs that many of you are destroying.

Sorry, this is a pet peeve for me.

nurseunderwater · Mar 29, 2004

when i was 4 I banged my head and needed stitches... I remember the doc in the ER to this day. He was holding me in one arm and smoking. He said to me, "Want a puff tiger?" to this day I swear it's why I love the medical field.

OK, I know, it's an odd reason. whatever

alyca · Mar 29, 2004

I have empathy/sympathy/tons of supportive understanding for IVDA patients, cocaine users, etc. I have absolutely none for tobacco smokers. IVDA people don't go around inadvertantly injecting people with their drug of choice. Cocaine users don't throw powder in your face for you to inhale. Even marijuana smokers don't go around in public blowing smoke in your face. But cigarette smokers feel completely justified stinking up everywhere they go, saying it is 'my body'. Go hide in a closet somewhere and quit messing up my air! It is so rude!! Butts everywhere you look. Outside my hospital, there are always tons of people smoking or looking to bum a cigarette. I have people come up to me a lot asking for cigarettes or a lighter, but I tell them I am a nurse-I know better. In my book, there is absolutely no excuse for the woe is me smoker saying it is so hard, I can't quit. There is no person on this planet who does not know that cigarettes will kill you. Maybe 20 years ago, but not now. Basically, smoking cigarettes is slowly, torturously committing suicide over a period of years

.....stepping off my soapbox.........

That said, as the public hospital in Seattle, we have a huge IVDA or other ilicit drug abuse patients, and I really enjoy working with them. Pierce county, just south of us, has passed a law banning smoking in ALL public areas/buildings, including restaurants and bars. Here's hoping that a ban comes up for vote in my county!

Nurse Ratched, RN · Mar 29, 2004

when i was 4 I banged my head and needed stitches... I remember the doc in the ER to this day. He was holding me in one arm and smoking. He said to me, "Want a puff tiger?" to this day I swear it's why I love the medical field.
OK, I know, it's an odd reason. whatever

OMG lol. Must have had stock in Phillip Morris (gotta keep those new customers coming!)

That does have a bizarre sort of "crotchety old country doc" warm and fuzzy feeling about it (in a really weird way lol.)

SmilingBluEyes · Mar 30, 2004

Your body; your right to do what you want. As an adult, if you choose to smoke, I say go ahead and enjoy it....I really believe that.

But NOT around me or the patients, please. I don't care how much you wash your hands or how much gum you chew. Your smoke residues are very offensive esp to those of us with history of migraines and allergies. I can walk away from a nurse if her smoke smell offends me. However the patients cannot. It's really unfair to them. I really believe smoking should never be done on duty. Nothing on earth worse than smelling cigarette residue when one is sick, trust me.

Nemhain · Mar 31, 2004

I've been a casual smoker for 16 yrs now. I buy just one pack a month (if that). I don't smoke at work. I have my one cigarette after work at home. I'm fully aware of the consequences of smoking, but my one cigarette helps me relax. I usually light up when I watch "King of the Hill" - it's my ritual and I love it!

I think it's fine for doctors/nurses to smoke...as long as they don't smell like they do. :smokin:

rockin' in the free world,

Nemhain

Tweety, BSN, RN · Mar 31, 2004

Don't hate me because I'm an ex-smoker, and tell me "ex-smokers are the worst critics, so judgemental". I haven't smoked in 20 years, but from age 16 to age 24 I strugged to quit the entire time and hated/loved ciggarettes. So my point is I fully understand why people smoke, and there's a myriad of reasons.

It's your body, your choice, do what you want. Same with obesity.

I'm keeping my mouth shut on this one too. :)

Palpitations · Mar 31, 2004

I just recently started smoking about a year ago. I'm 44 years old. It was being around all of the patients that smoked and the nurses that smoked that encouraged me to smoke. My children aren't happy that I've started to smoke. They asked me what would I do if they started to smoke? I told them if they wanted to start smoking when their 43 that it would be okay with me. I have to admit that it appeared to me that nurses that smoked got more breaks. Also, I couldn't understand how a person that was dying from lung disease or heart disease could continue to smoke, but it seemed to give them so much satisfaction and it calmed their nerves better than the medication. I felt that it they were terminal, stopping smoking, at this point, wasn't going to stop them from being terminal. I also saw many nurses that were severely overweight that would have the nerve to talk about the nurses that smoked. I kind of thought that was strange. Smoking calmed my nerves while I was going through a crisis on my job. The hospital was closing several units including the one that I worked in and I had been newly diagnosed with a goiter and was going to have to have a surgery. I had a lot of complications from the surgery. One being that the doctor didn't put in a drain and my neck swoll up like a balloon, and I couldn't breathe; necessitating another surgery the next day where I was intubated in the right mainstem bronchus, which caused my left lung to collapse. Woke up in MICU on a ventilator. Later found out that both of my vocal cords had been paralyzed necessitating a tracheostomy. Found out that the surgeon nicked my parathyroids and I have been having muscle cramps and laryngospasms, etc...and I don't have a job and I need to find one, but who's going to hire a person with a tracheostomy? So now, I smoke with a tracheostomy. I use to judge those people. How dare they! Tsk! I didn't have larygngeal cancer as most people would think. My doctor did it to me. Now, I smoke more because my nerves are really bad. I think that it was stress that started me, but it could be some sort of revenge thing. I know. I'm only hurting myself. I know it's crazy! :uhoh3:

______________________

Your body; your right to do what you want. As an adult, if you choose to smoke, I say go ahead and enjoy it....I really believe that.
But NOT around me or the patients, please. I don't care how much you wash your hands or how much gum you chew. Your smoke residues are very offensive esp to those of us with history of migraines and allergies. I can walk away from a nurse if her smoke smell offends me. However the patients cannot. It's really unfair to them. I really believe smoking should never be done on duty. Nothing on earth worse than smelling cigarette residue when one is sick, trust me.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Mar 31, 2004

I've seen a few people that say "as long as they don't smell like it". I have yet to work with a smoker at work that DOESN'T smell like an ashtray, even if they smoked at home and wear facility-issued scrubs.

(And hopefully none like that girl on the on med-surg floor who thinks 3 or 4 sprays of body spray gets rid of it. Great, the smell of an ashtray, combined with body spray that smells like a Glade Air Freshner from the reject pile. Gag.)

SmilingBluEyes · Mar 31, 2004

I just recently started smoking about a year ago. I'm 44 years old. It was being around all of the patients that smoked and the nurses that smoked that encouraged me to smoke. My children aren't happy that I've started to smoke. They asked me what would I do if they started to smoke? I told them if they wanted to start smoking when their 43 that it would be okay with me. I have to admit that it appeared to me that nurses that smoked got more breaks. Also, I couldn't understand how a person that was dying from lung disease or heart disease could continue to smoke, but it seemed to give them so much satisfaction and it calmed their nerves better than the medication. I felt that it they were terminal, stopping smoking, at this point, wasn't going to stop them from being terminal. I also saw many nurses that were severely overweight that would have the nerve to talk about the nurses that smoked. I kind of thought that was strange. Smoking calmed my nerves while I was going through a crisis on my job. The hospital was closing several units including the one that I worked in and I had been newly diagnosed with a goiter and was going to have to have a surgery. I had a lot of complications from the surgery. One being that the doctor didn't put in a drain and my neck swoll up like a balloon, and I couldn't breathe; necessitating another surgery the next day where I was intubated in the right mainstem bronchus, which caused my left lung to collapse. Woke up in MICU on a ventilator. Later found out that both of my vocal cords had been paralyzed necessitating a tracheostomy. Found out that the surgeon nicked my parathyroids and I have been having muscle cramps and laryngospasms, etc...and I don't have a job and I need to find one, but who's going to hire a person with a tracheostomy? So now, I smoke with a tracheostomy. I use to judge those people. How dare they! Tsk! I didn't have larygngeal cancer as most people would think. My doctor did it to me. Now, I smoke more because my nerves are really bad. I think that it was stress that started me, but it could be some sort of revenge thing. I know. I'm only hurting myself. I know it's crazy!
______________________

why not ask for ativan or an SSRI or other drug, and get some counseling instead for your anxiety? I am with your kids; taking up smoking at your age is very very ill-advised. It is at any age, but in your 40s??? I guess I am missing something here.

Nurses and smoking

Is it ok for nurses and doctors to smoke?