Smokers in Nursing School--How Are You Treated?

[SarahMaria]

I am a smoker (I know, I know), and I am in my third semester of nursing school. Often, especially at clinicals, my fellow smokers and I are looked upon as common criminals. Always, there is some sort of smoking ban on hospital property, therefore, we pariahs must go to a designated location which is usually far away, across the street, in a dangerous neighborhood. Is anyone else feeling like a leper for engaging in a legal activity?

[CrazierThanYou]

Most people are nice enough not to say anything. We all smell it. Just no one says anything.

That's exactly what it is. I have never yet encountered a smoker who didn't reek.

[nursel56]

To work in health care, it is important to understand and have some consideration for individuals who suffer with addiction. You will be caring for these people in the future and compassion is an essential component of nursing.

To work in health care you need to understand that it is both pointless and impossible to make a subjective feeling "an essential component of nursing". If it's essential, how do you propose to weed out those otherwise really fantastic nurses who don't measure up? Who is the decider? I would agree that any outward display of disgust shouldn't happen, and there are standards already in place to deal with behavior toward patients. We owe competence and professionalism to all. The contents of our minds and hearts belong only to ourselves.

Addiction is not a choice, but a disease.

Saying that addiction is a disease does not remove all elements of choice from the addicted person's behavior. If that were true a drunk driver or a high on Vicodin airline pilot would not be held accountable for their actions if they maim or kill people while they are intoxicated.

Try not to think of smokers (or other addicts) with disgust. When you work in health care, you will be subjected to all sorts of "ill effects" of patients behaviors

.

No, I absolutely reject the argument that it is part of nursing to suffer the ill effects of anyone's addiction, whether it's a peer (which is what this thread is about, anyway) or a patient. If a patient were to have Intermittent Explosive Disorder, it's not a part of health care to be subjected to a smack in the mouth by an enraged patient. It is not part of health care for a nurse with asthma to be subjected to a patient's secondhand smoke.

[Sugar-Phosphate]

I am a non-smoker, and do not like smoke, BUT I do not think the original poster meant to be attacked in such a way as they have. Perhaps this post should contain only smokers for support for the OP rather than attacking. The OP already knows the negatives of smoking, but it is not our right to judge them.

This is only my opinion.

[PacoUSA, BSN, RN]

I am going on 9 years since my last cigarette, cold turkey - and I am a happy non-smoker. I don't believe for a minute that it's impossible to quit. If you want to quit bad enough, you will find a way. I am living proof. And don't fool yourself by saying that you don't reek of smoke when you return from your break outside. The non-smoker will smell you before they see you coming!

[PghRN30]

If you get smoke breaks I demand fresh air breaks.

When I used to work in a resturant, we used to do just that. Once we got through lunch rush and right before lunch rush all the smokers needed their smoke breaks, and all the managers smoked and so accomidated everyone getting their smoke breaks, they would usually go in pairs or groups of three and sit outside and bs and smoke for 15 minutes(while still on the clock). The couple of us that didnt smoke got sick of it, of busting our butts to get through lunch and then cover all the smoke breaks, so on nice days when the smokers rotated through their post lunch smoke brakes, we started rotating ourselfs in for fresh air brakes, grab a coffee or pop and went and sat out side for 10 minutes and relaxed....or when the AC was broken on the hottest days of the summer, we brought klondikes or popsicles in and had ice cream/popsicle breaks in the walk in cooler.

As for smelling like smoke....yes you do. A mint or gum is not going to fix the main problem. The main problem isnt going to be your breath. The main problem is smoke permiates hair and clothes...until you wash them, they will smell. Light smoker, only smoke a few a day, it may not be much, and maybe a lot of people wont notice it. Fact of pulling hair back for nursing will help keep the smell out of hair a little, so if that cigarette is only the second you have had since you washed your hair, and the only one you have had since you put those clothes on, and you didnt stand with a big crowd of smokers, you probably wont smell too bad, but trust me, someone that does not smoke and is not regularly around smoke WILL still be able to smell it. Heavier/more frequent smoker, there is no way you wont noticably smell like smoke to someone that isnt accustomed to it. My mom is a smoker, and everything that comes from her house reeks BAD. My son forgot his teddy bear at her house overnight one night, she brought it back next day. He comments to me "it smells like grandma"......yep...cigarette smoke.....had to wash it 3 times before i could get the smell out enough to let him sleep with it. Also she has left him things on the porch when we were not home, he would pick them up and go "I know this is from my grandma", and I ask why and he would say because of the smell. She gave me a planner for christmas that i returned because i wouldnt have been able to stand using it the paper reeked so bad. When I was younger and lived with my mom, I couldn't notice that smell, I was just used to it. After a few years of not being around it being able to smell it comes back.

But as feel feeling like a martyr for having a designated smoking spot off campus. Hopitals are smoke free campuses.......end of story. Its not to pick on you, its just the rule, no one is allowed to smoke on a hospital campus. So they picked a spot just off campus that they probably considered easiest and safest place to have you go to. Guess what, no one is allowed to smoke on a school campus either. If you had a job as a teacher you would be facing the same thing. I know before i lost my job at the univerity, the university i worked for was doing something similar. It wasnt no smoking on the campus, but they were in the process of picking designated spots that would be the only place allowed to smoke. I know the building that I worked in, 3rd floor was ground level, and did not have windows. There were air intake vents that did supply air to the building. There was a woman that was extremely sensitive to things like cigarette smoke who worked in another office on the same floor. Apparently she had a lot of issues because of the fact that the air intake vent that supplied her office, was right above the place that smokers often chose to go to smoke. Just because you do not see people around you, doesnt mean you arent affecting someone, you have no control of where that smoke drifts off to. Removing smoking from hospital grounds entirely does ensure that people coming into the hospital are not affected by your smoking.

[PacoUSA, BSN, RN]

The Marlboro Red smokers ... OMG, those reek the worst

[escapebigd]

I am not a smoker, but do have a family full of smokers and I can understand the addiction part of it. There are other things that can help through the day such as electronic cigarettes and such.

When my son was 5 months old he was diagnosed with RAD and put in the hospital with pneumonia. I wanted to physically harm the nurse that came in to do rounds smelling as if she was still smoking. The hospital is not the place for smoke breaks. Maybe certain people smoke certain ways (I have no idea) that make them not smell as bad as others, but some people absolutely reek and can make their patients problems worse.

[Jonathank]

I can understand and agree with intolerance against indoor smokers. But if someone goes outside to an open space with a breeze before indulging, I think they've earned the benefit of the doubt. Only if there is still an odor should it be an issue.

BTW, sitting in your car to smoke will almost certainly make your clothes and hair reek. Common sense should tell you that.