Nursing School Drug Testing

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I would like to know what the cut off for the nursing school drug tests is. Is it the standard 50ng/ml cut off? Or is it a 15-20ng/ml cut off? I've been clean and decided to keep marijuana out of my life for good, but i've been clean for only 1 month so far after being a chronic (1.5g/day of marijuana) user for 2 years straight. My drug test is either October or November. Also, i'm a 21 year old female, 215lbs, 5'2". I tested myself with a first check at home drug test and it came up as negative and their cut off is 50ng/ml. PLEASE HELP ME.

Specializes in Pedi.
I'm hoping OP is responsible enough to know not to show up under the influence during any clinical lol, but afaik, my program only tests you once in your first semester.

Just because your program does that does NOT mean that "most of the time" programs don't test after the original test. You can literally be drug tested at any time throughout the program- before clinicals, during clinicals, etc- and if you pop positive, you can expect to be dismissed from the program.

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Specializes in ICU + 25 years as Nursing Faculty.

While the vast majority of nursing students who are drug tested only are tested ONCE, every drug testing policy I have seen has included "testing for cause". In other words, if at any time there is reason to suspect that a student may be under the influence of substances, the school (or clinical agency) can demand a drug test.

Some schools and agencies might even have a policy that defines "cause" as a student's involvement in a clinical incident even if there is no other suspicion of substance use.

I would also anticipate that many programs have policies that allow "random" testing. Random tests are not commonly used in the civilian nursing world* due to their cost. I suspect that you will find that tolerance by nursing schools for illicit drug use or abuse of legal drugs by nursing students to be essentially non-existent.

* As a military nurse I was drug tested quite frequently.

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Specializes in Oncology.

Me three!!! :) (meaning mine too)

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Specializes in Emergency Room, CEN, TCRN.

We got tested before starting, and some of the clinical sites required drug screens during their on-boarding process. The VA in particular has a pretty extensive boarding process for student nurses to do clinical rotations there.

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most of the time, they only drug test you when you are accepted into the program, and then you can do or partake in whatever activities you want after you pass that test because they never test you again.

We had random drug testing in school. You would show up for class and hey would call the name of four or five people, and you would have to pay then and take your drug test then.

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We had a random screening before clinical first semester, again in the third semester. It says 50ng/mL for marijuana metabolites.

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Mine too.

Me too. 5 panel.

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While the chances may be slim of a random re-test, as someone mentioned above, it could happen after an "incident." Such incidents could include a patient fall with the student at the bedside (or responsible for said patient), a narcotic count discrepancy, or other event.

I was drug tested after I hurt my back while on duty. I was an employee, not a student, but if a student were injured during clinicals, it's not inconceivable that the student could be required to be tested.

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most of the time, they only drug test you when you are accepted into the program, and then you can do or partake in whatever activities you want after you pass that test because they never test you again.

This is a huge country, with thousands of schools. How would you know what happens "most of the time"?

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This is a huge country, with thousands of schools. How would you know what happens "most of the time"?

Thats the way it goes at my school and I have friends going to bsn schools throughout texas. Obviously if OP's school is different he/she will prepare differently for their drug test and behave responsibly

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It depends on the lab. And there's no test specific to nursing school. All the school and clinical sites get is a 1 word response... either positive or negative. That's all that anyone who isn't you gets. The cutoff depends on what's standard in your state for what's considered a positive result.

If you're really worried, drug tests aren't expensive ($100 at the most). Go to a lab and get a test and see what the result is.

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My school drug tested us... We got blood tests so they can find stuff that's been in your system that a urine wouldn't detect.

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