Smoking And Nurses

kukukajoo, LPN · Jan 20, 2008

Nah. You just don't want him bumming smokes from you or stealing your lighter. Makes sense to me.

I shoulda swallowed the coffee before reading this! :)

I had a friend once- big executive by day, part time bartender at local VFW by night for fun. She used to have a fishbowl behind the bar hidden for lighters. For fun she would make a game and try to steal everyones lighter in the place! They NEVER caught on even though she had been doing it for years and that by the end of the nite everyone was using matches!

BTW I am still laughing!!!

Toquay · Jan 20, 2008

Being a non smoker I can truly appreciate the ban on indoor smoking. I have 3 sisters and a mother all 2-3 pack day smokers and never had a clue what clean air was until I left home. Ever since I was little I would get bronchitis 2-3 times a year. One year ago, finally had my MD diagnose me with reactive airway disease and put me on singulair (the greatest med ever) and I have now had an entire year of free no illness, cough, or difficulty breathing.

The sad thing is how many parents I see smoking in their cars with their children, or standing outside holding the baby puffing away. It seems every year we see more and more kids for asthma and I have to wonder how many of these children are second hand smokers. Smoking should be an individual choice and today I think most smokers are considerate around other adults. As a nurse, I try and educate the parents I see but alomost everyone of them will deny smoking near their children. I can't say 100% that my exposure growing up was the reason for my chronic bronchitis and illness but without having the choice of a smokefree environment I can't say it wasn't.

Healthcare is becoming a luxury that many can't afford and some insurance complanies and employers are requiring higher premiums for unhealthy behavior. I know that many older smokers did not know of the health concerns/ risks but to see so many teens disregard warnings and light up is scary. I have yet to meet a smoker that wishes they had never started and usually the ones that have kicked the habit are the most outspoken. Good healthcare starts with each and everyone of us by taking care of ourselves. Hats off to anyone that has quit or continues to try and quit.

Toq

EmmaG, RN · Jan 20, 2008

My friend used to say smoking formed a "protective layer" in her lungs which helped prevent her from getting sick from colds, etc... That cracked me up.

A friend had quit after years of smoking, and several months later came down with the worst respiratory infection she'd ever experienced. She was on inhalers and prednisone out the wazoo and sick as hell. She said she complained to the pulmonologist the irony of being so sick as a non-smoker after all those years of smoking and never getting ill. He told her that many do become sick as the body clears all that crap out of their lungs. He didn't actually call it a 'protective layer', but his point was kinda along those lines.

beachbum3 · Jan 20, 2008

I think that there should be smoking areas away from main walkways and entrances to buildings, it seems most would comply with smoking in designated areas. Then non smokers shouldn't have anything to complain about.

As far as taking long smoke breaks- if all employees are entitled to a certain number of breaks in a day then smokers should be expected to take no more than the allotted breaks for other employees for no more than the allotted time.

If those two rules are applied I don't really see where its anyone else's concern.

LydiaNN · Jan 20, 2008

A friend had quit after years of smoking, and several months later came down with the worst respiratory infection she'd ever experienced. She was on inhalers and prednisone out the wazoo and sick as hell. She said she complained to the pulmonologist the irony of being so sick as a non-smoker after all those years of smoking and never getting ill. He told her that many do become sick as the body clears all that crap out of their lungs. He didn't actually call it a 'protective layer', but his point was kinda along those lines.

I am always a little hesitant to have my transmission fuel changed because a couple times I have had trouble right after that happened. I think the gunky fuel was serving as a glue of sorts. It sounds like a similar phenomenon.

Nat Hyland · Jan 20, 2008

I have been both a patient in hospital (at least 8 times that I can count), and work with other carers/nurses in an aged care facility who smoke. As a non-smoker, I can say there is nothing that makes me feel SICKER than having a nurse who has just been smoking either leaning over me taking observations, or sitting next to me during hand over.

I have also found it difficult to understand why people who should have a great deal of knowledge about how the body functions, and the effects chemicals in cigarette smoke have on the body, smoke.

I have watched two of the people I love die of illnesses that have almost certainly been caused by cigarette smoking. My dad's mum died slowly and painfully over 15 years of emphysema - believe it or not, she was in denial right up to her death that her cigarette smoking played any part (she stopped smoking 15 years before she died). My dad's dad died of lung cancer, that transformed him from an energetic, healthy man, to a weak, listless patient.

This is not to mention the fact that being exposed to cigarette smoke gives me asthma and makes my eyes water. And do you know, I know people who are actually YOUNGER than me who smoke, but look 10 years OLDER? NO JOKE!

It is a pointless, rediculous habit for ANYONE to have, particularly nurses!

Nat.

LydiaNN · Jan 20, 2008

I do understand that it is an addiction and I don't claim to have no bad habits of my own. Nonetheless, smoking tends to impact other people more than many other bad health habits based on the fact that second hand smoke is carcinogenic and it stinks. I agree with Nat, when someone stands close to you, or worse yet, leans over you, the odor is hard to handle. I switched dentists because his hygenist smoked and it made me gag. Unfortunately, hospitalized patients don't have that choice.

grace90, LPN, LVN · Jan 20, 2008

NICOTINE TAR CONTAINS OVER 4000 CHEMICALS including ammonia, formaldehyde, orificenic, butane, hydrogen cyanide, lead, mercury, vinyl chloride, methane AND vast quantities of carbon monoxide.
Nicotine is a colorless, odorless, organic-based alkaloid in the same family as cocaine, morphine, quinine and strychnine. It is a super toxin. Now I know it is legal and so is alcohol, but how can this be allowed in the workplace. It has to effect judgement. please I need feedback, because I have a hard time with this at work.

I don't care if other nurses smoke, as long as they do their job, and yes I know lots of smoking nurses who. do their job very well, and I don't have to cover their pt's for smoke breaks all the time. Step off it, and mind your own beeswax.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jan 20, 2008

I don't remember the last time I had a smoker in my house, but I've never had to ask anyone to go outside. They do it automatically. I guess maybe it is just different where we live, because it is never presumed that it's ok to smoke in someone else's house. I'd find it incredibly rude if someone did light up in here.
My stepmother-in-law was a real estate agent for years. She and fil own a gorgeous home. She smokes like a chimney, but doesn't do it even in our own house because of what it does to resale value.

It's automatic here too. People don't even smoke in their own homes, much less anyone elses. At my Christmas party recently there was a smoking couple and they excused themselves a couple of times to go outside. It wasn't "do you mind if I smoke? Is it alright to smoke inside?" Is was "I'm stepping outside to smoke, see you in a few."

It's the same way in people's cars.

NurseNature · Jan 20, 2008

I don't think health care providers should be allowed to smoke while on the clock b/c of the offensive smell to their sick patients. I do, however, feel there should be somewhere on every hospital campus for the family members to smoke, as long as it is well out of reach of any nonsmoker's lungs. If your relative is dying and you refuse to leave the hospital, and you are a heavy smoker... it will just make coping that much more difficult to be denied your unhealthy vice. I just don't think it's right to make relatives suffer just b/c the hospital doesn't enforce the no smoking except in designated areas policy. That has always bothered me.

MNmom3boys · Jan 20, 2008

If you hate smoking so much,try Skoal...it will keep your lungs nice and clean.

Unfortunately (among other reasons) that smell is pretty distinctive and strong as well.

allnurses Guide · Jan 20, 2008

Can't do it to my mother.

Your mother and my mother must be twins.

When I divorced my boys' dad, my mom lived with us. She smoked like a chimney. My boys had ear infections all the time. My doc finally asked me "Do you smoke?". Never! I hate smoking. Both my parents smoked and I vowed to never ever try it. But I told him about my mom. He told me to tell her to stop smoking around the boys. I laughed . . . no way doc, my mom is crazy. She will find a way to punish me for it.

But I did tell her what the doc said and she got very angry and said the doc didn't know what he was talking about. And she stopped talking to me for a month and did little things to make me feel bad the whole time.

I was so glad when I was able to move out.

My mom is certifiable. :bugeyes:

We are estranged now - over other things, not smoking.

steph