Smoking

4XNURSE · Apr 14, 2002

Originally posted by nurs4kids
oh, but I CAN compare the two.
You have to eat, but you do NOT have to eat the donuts. Overeating kills people. Obesity is a known to increase cancer risks. Obesity reduces your life expectancy. Obesity increases the insurance premiums for healthy people.

just calling a spade a spade. Let's quit the selective attacking. If it ain't healthy, it ain't healthy whether it's something I do or whether it's something someone else does!

nurse4kids,

You're right, "you do NOT have to eat the donuts."

Obesity is not, however, related to eating a donut. Or to eating a dozen of them. Obesity is not necessarily even related to how much you eat. There's a whole lot of factors that contribute to peoples size/weight. A lot of them are due to some kind of medical malfunction. - There's no medical malfunction that causes cigatette smoking. That's one of those things you have to choose to start. Thus you can also choose to quit.

Ever seen someone choose to produce more thyroid? ( you may recall, hypothyroid causes obesity.)

Ever seen someone choose to undo the trauma of a MVA? ( decreased mobility contributes to obesity)

Ever even seen someone choose to eat themselves into obesity. - Think about it.

If you choose to smoke, you choose to pollute your lungs and damage your health, and quite possibly that of others around you.

Hmmmm, Why does anyone have a problem Dr. Kevorkian? R.J. Reynolds does it all the time. - eh?

To the orriginal question. - If a hospital, (or any business) chooses to limit their risk by not hiring smokers, that should be up to their risk management. Insurance companies refuse coverage to high risk individuals all the time. I'm comfortable allowing a hospital that latitude. Most hospitals are self insured. Let them choose their risks, the same as the insurance companies do.

just my $. 02

ken :devil:

JMP · Apr 15, 2002

Ken

I like the way you think.........:-)

J.

mother/babyRN, RN · Apr 15, 2002

Well, lots of things aren't great for us. I have never been a smoker and I hate being any where near cigarrette smoke. That said, I defend the rights of people who choose to smoke (legality having nothing to due with this particular issue, in my opinion), out side the facility. In a privately owned building, if they don't want you to smoke, they should have the right to insist that you comply..

Sure , smoking related illnessess soak up a lot of medical time and expense. So does being overweight, a drinker, user of drugs, illegal AND legal, sexual involvemen without proper protection, etc...

LEAVE ME ALONE WHILE I"M AT HOME!!!

Next thing will be some ban on sleeping in order to provide a cheap, albeit dangerous solution to the nursing shortage ( or alleged nursing shortage)....

Unbelivable! Who knew living in a "free" country would get to be so damn restrictive?

micro, RN · Apr 15, 2002

just micro throwin her .02 cents in.........

good points all......truly..........

but think about it...........where next........

let hospitals/and other health care agencies start setting policiy on who they hire.............and they will have

ONLY THE PERFECT PEOPLE...........

and I for one have never met one.........

just my .02 please don't throw too many tomatoes my way please...........budget short just paid taxes and laundry detergent can be expensive.......hehehehehe

PCT_Nat · Apr 15, 2002

Cigarettes are legal and they do not ulter your ability of judgement, therefore people whould be allowed to do as they please at home. The hospital I work in allows smoking on the grounds in designated areas.

I am also a smoker, but I decided that I will not be smoking before work or during work because I don't want my uniform, my hands and my hair smelling like an ashtray while I am attending to sick people, who may find cigarette smell offensive.

It is extreme not to hire people who smoke. Smoker or not there are people who are excellent workers and it is far more important when we are dealing with human lives.

The person who did my surgery is a great doctor and I care less if he smoker or not. What matters to me is that I'm alive and i can have more children because of his skill.

MollyJ · Apr 15, 2002

Just FYI,

Hey Mario, in Kansas about 23% of the population smokes. Other states are similar with California weighing in at the low point at 19% (last I heard). Predictably, the southern states are a little higher than KS. The point is, it's hardly a majority behavior, much less an all-American behavior (like Lung Cancer is an all American way to die? I just thought it was a horrible way to die.)

While nicotine is not psychoactive in the way that Etoh or Marijuana is, it is psychoactive. Some studies have shown an increased rate of depression among smokers. And some smokers can be nervous and irritable [and distracted] when they are fixing for their nicotine. I say this to point out that nicotine does not have zero psycho-active impact, but not like etoh or marijuana et al.

You know, whether a nurse smokes or not is not a litmus test for me. I've worked with some great though nicotine addicted nurses. As a future employer, whether or not nurses were tested for nicotine wouldn't have high sway with me. I'll take competent, willing to pull their weight, smoker nurses any day. However, I think that a nurse that smokes gives an unfortunate but implicit message of support for smoking behavior and I think that's not what I'd like to see.

I like the idea of offering smoking cessation.

Dave ARNP · Sep 28, 2003

Actually, in regards to studies that show increased depression among smokers... The studies actually show that smoking can stimulate cells thus improving depression in treatment resistant depression.

Not that I would go suggesting that treatment to a PT.

David Adams, ARNP

-ACNP, FNP

--Smoker

Dixen81 · Sep 28, 2003

So I wonder...what if a non-smoker got hired at this "non-smoking" hospital, and after a year or so took up smoking? Would they fire you?

I don't care what their reasons are, it's still discrimination, which isn't right.

PilotJim68 · Sep 28, 2003

Originally posted by nurs4kids
oh, but I CAN compare the two.
You have to eat, but you do NOT have to eat the donuts. Overeating kills people. Obesity is a known to increase cancer risks. Obesity reduces your life expectancy. Obesity increases the insurance premiums for healthy people.

just calling a spade a spade. Let's quit the selective attacking. If it ain't healthy, it ain't healthy whether it's something I do or whether it's something someone else does!

This post goes out to ALL smokers. Can you live without eating? No!! Even that fattening donut has essiential vitamins and other nutrients that can benefit you. Can you live without smoking? Yes !!! What does that cig have that benefits you?? Does overeating kill other people like second hand smoke does??? Do people usually CHOOSE to step out in front of trucks and get killed in MVAs?? I dont think so...but you as a smoker CHOOSE to kill yourself and those around you. You CHOOSE to shorten your life and rob your loved ones of time spent with you. Is it then safe for me to reason that most smokers are bad decision makers based on their habit of smoking?

I am not a smoker, I will never be stupid or weak minded enough to smoke and I happen to AGREE with the hospitals for not hiring smokers. Your insurance and other health costs are higher, in general, smokers cost companies millions in sick days taken, they abuse their smoke break times and are less productive, what about your decreased energy levels related to low blood O2 secondary to smoking, smokers ARE drug addicts, most places have to alot "special" places just so you can get your drug and this costs money as well- not to mention the stench of those ashtrays rotting outside for everyone to smell. Smokers just plain stink and YES everyone knows you smoke no matter how hard you try to hide it. Smokers usually litter the ground with their butts - anyone care to guess as to how long it takes for those to biodegrade and how many animals do those butts kill due to choking and nicotine overdose? Walking through that cloud of nast is just the most wonderful sensation, smokers in the medical profession send a very poor message to their patients and the smell that you carry back into the facility is very strong and Pts are sensitive to it. You arent allowed to wear strong perfume or collogne are you? Then why would you want to irritate Pts. with the stench of YOUR cigs? Smokers just dont belong in a medical facility.

Lets face it, smoking is nothing but a selfish act, it benefits no one but the smoker trying to satisfy a craving for a drug. I classify a smoker as a druggie and they should be treated as such.

It is just so dang attractive when a smoker smiles at you with their brown stained teeth. The stench on their clothes and in their hair is enough to burn the hair out of your nostrils. The smokers cough is attractive as well, with those brown lung cookies you hack up. The yellow fingernails and the ashtray they call a mouth are extremely attractive, any nonsmokers ever kiss a smoker? Whats that nasty metallic taste? Brushing your teeth is only a temporary fix because the smell is from your lungs, not necessarily only from your mouth.

Are there other things on this planet that will kill you and are bad for you..YES, but MOST of those items only kill YOU and not everyone around you, just so YOU can satisfy YOUR drug addiction. Is it your right to smoke...I suppose so, but its my god given right to breathe the clean air that god intended us to breathe, it shouldnt be tainted with the air pollution that you as a smoker choose to release into the atmosphere for all to inhale.

Just a few observations, thoughts and questions here...did you know that people in the car behind yours can actually smell that nasty cig you just lit? Especially when you have the window rolled down. Did you know that people can just look at you and tell that you smoke? The advanced aging, wrinkling and greyish toned skin give it away in most cases, not to mention you stink. Can ANYONE give me ANY kind of a "benefit" to smoking (other than self satisfaction)? Has anyone ever seen that brown sticky gunk on the TV screen in a smokers house? What about all the house fires and MVAs caused by smokers? What about the forest fires caused by the inconsiderate smokers? Oh yeah, alot of people wont buy a house or a car if it has been smoked in because of the smell and usually the burns on the rugs and seats...you might want to think about that as well. Oh, and I think IMHO that the TRUTH commercials that they have on TV are just plain dumb and in no way convey a stong enough message to people about how offensive smoking is..........I am done for now, I can go on and on and on but I think I have passed along my personal thoughts and feeling on this subject, anyone want to discuss pot smoking or other drugs now??? LOL Flame away !!!

PilotJim68 · Sep 28, 2003

:kiss

Tweety, BSN, RN · Sep 28, 2003

Gee Jim, don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel.

:)

MandyInMS · Sep 28, 2003

hmmmm..just a thought..an employer will not hire if you smoke at home..not at work..but in your own home..which is not illegal but an unaccepted behavior to them....what next? will they begin to monitor your sexual habits? or dismiss you for social drinking? or a host of other activities that are not illegal,but not acceptable for them? If I'm not breaking any laws no one has the right to tell me what to do with MY time...period.