I am currently in a position at an inner city hospital, and have been here for a bit now. The hospital/doctors allow our patients to leave the floor to smoke as long as they have a waiver signed that basically states they are utilizing their time off the floor without being monitored and anything that happens is out of the hospital's control. Every nurse on the floor (in the hospital I should say) is against this for multiple obvious reasons; especially Per Diem RN's that just laugh at how ridiculous it is.
I am really just interested in knowing if there are any other hospitals out there that allow their patients to do this? I mean it's not always just smoking cigarettes, but patients roam the streets of the city for up to 2 hours, as they know the 2 hour mark defines them as eloped. Am I just crazy?