Hello! I am very excited to announce that our hospital is going "Smoke Free" on November 19th! Currently, there is a designated smoking area for staff and patients that is located conveniently in front of the front lobby. Nice huh?
The new policy will not allow anyone to smoke within 36 yards of the facility. There will be no more doctor's orders for a patient to leave the floor for a smoke break. If the patient decides to go down for a smoke they will have to sign themselves out of the hospital and go AMA. As for the staff members, theyw ill be offereed smoking cessation assistance. If they are caught smoking on property, they will get written up as it is a breach in policy.
I am interested to hear what other hospitals are doing to attack this problem of smoking at a hospital!
I think every hospital should be smoke free. Ours just went that way about two years ago. What cracks me up is that there's a large cemetery next to the hospital and employees who smoke and want to take a smoking break go around the fence and onto the cemetery property to smoke. Cracks me up everytime I see it. If that isn't absurdly ironic, I don't know what is.
My hospital is smoke free but the smokers,patients, congregate just outside the main doors and puff away like chimneys, it doesnt look nice. i feel so sorry for the ladies on reception as every time the doors open or close the smoke is wafted into the main reception.
The smokers are supposed to go out to the main road to smoke (the staff are also supposed to remove their uniforms as well but they dont) i frequently find staff,in uniform, smoking in nooks or crannies around the hospital site
I am 'justavolunteer' on a pt. unit. All the hospitals around here went smoke-free about 2 years ago. This includes anywhere on the grounds. I think a lot of visitors sit in their cars in the parking lot & have a cigarette. Some of the nurses get in their cars & leave the grounds at lunch to have a smoke. We don't generally have patients trying to leave the unit to smoke anymore. It's one thing to go outside in a hospital gown to smoke, it's quite another to attempt to get clear off the grounds in gown, with IV pole etc.
My first nursing experience was as a 16 yo aide on a surgical floor. I often had to help remove the surgical bedding on our fresh post-ops. I had to bend close to a patient who had just come from a lung lobectomy because his voice was so raspy, and he was so weak. His question? How soon can I smoke?
Back then, we still had a smoking areas on each patient floor, and, sure enough, the next day someone wheeled him and his IV and oxygen tank down to the lounge. The close proximity of O2 and smoking always gave me the heebie jeebies, but the ones whofelt they needed both seemed to be old pros at managing to keep from blowing themselves up.
If New York City and all of the Republic of Ireland can pull off going smoke free (and they both have), any place can do it.
AZO49008
145 Posts
I think every hospital should be smoke free. Ours just went that way about two years ago. What cracks me up is that there's a large cemetery next to the hospital and employees who smoke and want to take a smoking break go around the fence and onto the cemetery property to smoke. Cracks me up everytime I see it. If that isn't absurdly ironic, I don't know what is.