Smoking bans in and around NC hospitals

[Maggie in NC]

I've noticed most hospitals in my area have completely banned smoking from the premises and some are even testing employees and won't hire smokers!

What's the policy where you are? Thoughts about it?

BTW-I'm not a smoker but I do feel workers are getting told more and more what they can't do on their off time.

[webbiedebbie]

So, if a patient walks into ER right after having a cigarette, are you going to avoid him/her because their clothes smell like an ashtray?

I quit smoking at the beginning of nursing school years ago. I have since taken it up due to alot of stress. Yes, I know it is not good for me (you don't have to tell me over and over), yes I know it is expensive, and I do want to quit, BUT sometimes I enjoy it. Remember STRESS can kill you too.

I take my breaks as expected by the hospital. One thing I learned years ago was that when I was a nonsmoker, it was very hard to get breaks. I take my break 15 min in the morning, lunch, and 15 min in the afternoon. Please don't say you are babysitting my patients because I am on my break just because I happen to be outside smoking.

Would you think of your patients as disgusting because they haven't had a bath in a week or they are missing some teeth? How do you tolerate that? I am not in your face during the whole shift. How offensive can I be?

Many hospitals have set up places for those who smoke NOT to be near hospital entrances. That, I think, was a very good change in the past years. I doubt you are walking through clouds of smoke anymore.

I might have an alcoholic drink maybe twice in a year. I do not like how it smells on people who drink excessively. But I don't go around expressing disgust to others about it.

It doesn't seem right to compare smoking to drinking when talking about the workplace.

Okay, one thing that really bothers me is the smell of flavored coffees. If it is brewed in the breakroom, I get nauseaus and a headache. And that smell stays around the whole day. You can smell it throughout the hallways.

Please give us a break. Some are trying, some are weak, and most are usually considerate of nonsmokers. We have had to go through major adjustments in the past few years as a consideration for nonsmokers, and I won't complain there. I'm asking for you to give us the same consideration. It really is much better than it was many years ago when everyone was allowed to smoke right there inside the hospital!

[midwife2b]

The 750+ bed teaching hospital on the Eastern side of the state (one of our clinical sites) is becoming SMOKE-FREE throughout its campus at the beginning of May next year. This is a very LARGE area, so nicotine-addicted health care workers (or nursing students for that matter) cannot simply "cross the street" to smoke. This will be very difficult to enforce, especially with visitors.

I wish other big hospitals in NC would do the same!!! It would make life simpler if we could just tell patients there is NO SMOKING anywhere on campus!!!

So much health related research and care seems to be tied to the "old tobacco money", though... I also recall one year NCNA had a tobacco issue up for debate and voted against it because so many of the nurses and their spouses had ties, directly or indirectly, to tobacco. :angryfire

I'm a former smoker. I used my "smoke break" to figure out what I was going to do with some of my patient's problems. Don't get that time anymore unless I lock myself in the bathroom (which I've been known to do on occasion) :chuckle

This remains a very sensitive issue in NC. I applaud those who have gone 100% smoke free on the campuses for both patients and staff (after all, it is a HEALTH care facility, right???)

[ARNISARN]

I agree with the no smoking policy or ban, and so many of you bring up lots of things to think about. I personally have a problem with nurses who smoke and take advantage of nurse who don't for example, Can you watch my patient while I go smoke? They leave the floor right after report and take a smoke break. If you are allowed 2 fifteen minute smoke breaks then smoker are well over that. Then there is the nurse who sprays herself with perfume or puts on perfumed lotions to cover it up. This gives me migrane headaches.I should not have to endure this either, I don't know which one is worse. I would like to have a smoker watch my patient while I go take a fresh air break. So there are a lot of issue as far as smells that need to be looked at, the perfume issue does not only apply to nurse but everyone in the facility. I am against not hiring because a person smokes. Though I am not a smoker I feel that alcohol is much more dangerous.(Drunk drivers)

but this will never become a issue thanks to politician.