Nursing student taking drugs

Atheos · Jan 30, 2009

By your logic, if I'm in my home in bed I have the POTENTIAL to get hit by a car that veers off the road and into my home...so why shouldn't I just go sleep in the street?
Risks are all around us, yes. But drug use impairs mental abilities, thus increasing the risk that a healthcare worker will harm a patient.

So I'll assume that you DON'T drink or smoke EVER. Or for that matter partake in ANY risky and potentially dangerous behavior...

pooptacular · Jan 30, 2009

I don't have time to do an literature review right now, but here's one that I found in under 5 minutes:
"Non-medical prescription stimulant users were more likely to report use of alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine and other risky behaviors."
McCabe, S. E., Knight, J. R., Teter, C. J., & Wechsler, H. (2004). Non-medical use of prescription stimulants among US college students: Prevalence and correlates from a national survey. Addiction, 100(1), 96-106.
"Non-medical use" means that they obtained it without a Rx. Either they buy it illegally, or if they have ready access (as a nurse does) they steal it.

i think that this is a logical fallacy. this study about addiction focuses on us college students (which may or may not include us nursing students). also, it says that those who were stimulant users were more likely to report the usage of other things (plenty of which are actually legal- alcohol, cigarettes...then there's the ominously vague "risky behavior").

but, this really has no relation to a student (specifically nursing) engaging in marijuana usage.

plus, if we're talking about regular college students, then good god- adderall (which is what i suspect their talking about) and ritalin are widely available and "abused". it's the new souped up version of an all-nighter.

TinkerNurse · Jan 30, 2009

By your logic, if I'm in my home in bed I have the POTENTIAL to get hit by a car that veers off the road and into my home...so why shouldn't I just go sleep in the street?
Risks are all around us, yes. But drug use impairs mental abilities, thus increasing the risk that a healthcare worker will harm a patient.

Not really. Sorry but if you are this opposed to mj because you feel that it impairs your mental capacities then you'd have to be equally opposed to healthcare workers drinking.

mama_d, BSN, RN · Jan 30, 2009

As long as it's not being done immediately before or during patient care, nope, I wouldn't say anything. There have been plenty of times that I have come home from a rough shift and had a glass of wine or a mixed drink, when honestly my preference would be to have a puff or two. Neither one would affect my ability to care for my patients the next shift, but one could get me fired and the other won't.

I haven't read through all the posts yet, but see that in the first few pages of them there are a lot of misconceptions regarding the illegalization of pot in the first place. For those who assume that "it's illegal, so it must be bad"...go and do some research. There's a well-written, well-researched article at

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/whiteb1.htm

if you're interested. I was going to try and summarize it here, but it's too darn long and complicated, and I have to assume that not everyone is as much of a history buff as I am.

Basically, the legislation was based on fear, racism, and lies, not on legitimate medical or societal concerns. Take a closer look at the historical basis for the law before you decree "they're breaking the law, so they're bad". At the very least, it makes for interesting reading.

Equinox_93 · Jan 30, 2009

I think that's the point. There is potential for harm...to myself, my fellow classmates/co-worker, and ESPECIALLY to patients.

... If they aren't under the influence while in class, at work, with patients etc. then where is that potential for harm, again? *lost*.

Sure- there is a very minimal risk of harm to themselves- but again that is no more than driving fast, drinking a bit on ones day off, etc.

HeartsOpenWide, RN · Jan 30, 2009

Unless I saw them doing it before clinical or smelled it on them or knew that they did it before clinical....nothing, what they do on their time is their business. If they were doing it before clinicals I would talk to them about it, why it is wrong. At some point they are going to have to stop, they do drug testing for new jobs.

I have a person in my class that has a 215 card and his hospital employer knows about it. He is smart about it and of course does not do it anytime around clinical.

Personally, I do not know when people have time to smoke pot while in nursing school....why waste valuable study time:smokin:? Maybe I just one of the old ladies of my class, but I never understood how classmates could still go to bars and parties while in nursing school...I could not do that and keep up the grades I have.

Equinox_93 · Jan 30, 2009

By your logic, if I'm in my home in bed I have the POTENTIAL to get hit by a car that veers off the road and into my home...so why shouldn't I just go sleep in the street?
Risks are all around us, yes. But drug use impairs mental abilities, thus increasing the risk that a healthcare worker will harm a patient.

... Only if said healthcare worker is under the influence while at work caring for said patients. Using your sleeping in the street logic, we could take that to apply here and suggest that somehow those patients are going to go wander to the healthcare workers home on their day off when they're on their own time to be cared for while said healthcare worker is using said substance and come across that risk of impaired judgement.

So long as the healthcare worker is not under the influence of any judgement impairing substance while at work or on call, it's no one else's business.

TinkerNurse · Jan 30, 2009

Unless I saw them doing it before clinical or smelled it on them or knew that they did it before clinical....nothing, what they do on their time is their business. If they were doing it before clinicals I would talk to them about it, why it is wrong. At some point they are going to have to stop, they do drug testing for new jobs.
I have a person in my class that has a 215 card and his hospital employer knows about it. He is smart about it and of course does not do it anytime around clinical.
Personally, I do not know when people have time to smoke pot while in nursing school....why waste valuable study time:smokin:? Maybe I just one of the old ladies of my class, but I never understood how classmates could still go to bars and parties while in nursing school...I could not do that and keep up the grades I have.

What is a 215 card?

flightnurse2b, LPN · Jan 30, 2009

What is a 215 card?

a medical marijuana card. you have to get it from a doctor. i think they're only recognized in california.

CinnScorpStudent · Feb 27, 2009

A revisited post, humor certainly wasn't lost on most of the crowd and I can see the effects of "Reefer Madness" is still winding its way through the American psyche...I wonder if those in opposition to the "alleged" nurse oppose the scripts of lab weed in a pill form that is still on the charts?

What amazes me (as a believer in a creator (non-religous)) is that people will go so far out of whack on defending or opposing such a harmless plant yet there are plants out there that really do kill, mame, disease humans....yet I've never heard of the DEA or local law enforcement rounding up these hemlock patches that Chief Dr. X's wife has growing in her own garden because they're "botanicals" and not "agents of death"...

I think we all agree on one thing...."high nurse in clinical setting...no"...but let's also face reality and agree "drunk, high on script, too stupid for our own good, engages of acts of moral depravity...etc...no"...where does it end?

Unless someone is stumbling onto the floor as long as they know what they're doing, perform their duties and don't make mistakes due to their personal lives, what does it matter?

There's a guy I know (that shall go nameless...to protect the truly stoned and really a major threat to health of the entire human race) that works for a major defense contractor in the realm of nuclear physics, grad of Carnagie Mellon - MIT - the big shebang...this guy hasn't drawn an oxygen filled breath since high school....he's now semi-retired, consults when needed and still smokes pot like it's his best friend...so when I see a thread begin with a "should I become a tattle tale" over this, it just makes me think of how pointless and Gladys Kravitz our nation has become on this issue.

To those that still don't get it...there are FAR BIGGER boogiemen in our reality than those we create for ourselves at the master's bidding...

E.R. Rookie · Feb 27, 2009

A revisited post, humor certainly wasn't lost on most of the crowd and I can see the effects of "Reefer Madness" is still winding its way through the American psyche...I wonder if those in opposition to the "alleged" nurse oppose the scripts of lab weed in a pill form that is still on the charts?
What amazes me (as a believer in a creator (non-religous)) is that people will go so far out of whack on defending or opposing such a harmless plant yet there are plants out there that really do kill, mame, disease humans....yet I've never heard of the DEA or local law enforcement rounding up these hemlock patches that Chief Dr. X's wife has growing in her own garden because they're "botanicals" and not "agents of death"...
I think we all agree on one thing...."high nurse in clinical setting...no"...but let's also face reality and agree "drunk, high on script, too stupid for our own good, engages of acts of moral depravity...etc...no"...where does it end?
Unless someone is stumbling onto the floor as long as they know what they're doing, perform their duties and don't make mistakes due to their personal lives, what does it matter?
There's a guy I know (that shall go nameless...to protect the truly stoned and really a major threat to health of the entire human race) that works for a major defense contractor in the realm of nuclear physics, grad of Carnagie Mellon - MIT - the big shebang...this guy hasn't drawn an oxygen filled breath since high school....he's now semi-retired, consults when needed and still smokes pot like it's his best friend...so when I see a thread begin with a "should I become a tattle tale" over this, it just makes me think of how pointless and Gladys Kravitz our nation has become on this issue.
To those that still don't get it...there are FAR BIGGER boogiemen in our reality than those we create for ourselves at the master's bidding...

Amen Sister!

E.R. Rookie · Feb 27, 2009

Woops brother hehe