smoking in the work place

Nurses General Nursing

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I would like to know if any one could advise me on how to go about making a change in a LTC facility where staff is required to take reisdents outside to smoke for monitoring them for safety which is required. I do not think that non smokers should be forced to be subjected to second hand smoke nor utilize nursing time frames to satisty a smokers habit. While there is a plethora of information available on second hand smoke it does not appear that non-smokers have complete protection/ legal rights in the workplace. I would like to see a law that would change this. Additionally in the entrance/exit area to clock in + out , is the designated smoke area for employees which offers a second exposure. There is not always a smoker on duty on the particular floor who can accommodate the patient so the nonsmokers who do not want to do this have no choice. I want to see an end to this. At other times the smoker employee can "enjoy " the continual "privilege" to take the patient to smoke causing the non smoker employee to be left to answer all of the smoker employee's call lights. Personally I do not beleive that the patients should be allowed to smoke at all. But it is my understanding that because the LTC facility is considered their "home" that they have a right to smoke. I would like to see a law enacted to protect the worker from second hand smoke. I would appreciate any suggestions.

Specializes in Med/Surg.
O.K., I hope that I don't break my fingers while typing this.

I understand that if you are a non-smoker you don't want to take the resident outside to smoke. But someone who does smoke should be able to take the residents outside. Maybe set up certain "smoke break" times during the day.

Smokers have rights, too. Sometimes people forget that there are people in this field that smoke, and by having the untire hospital campus "smoke free" is impinging on our rights, our feelings. What does it hurt--WHO does it hurt if a smoker goes out to his/her own car to smoke. Being outside, away from anyone that doesn't smoke, shouldn't hurt anyone (but the smoker, and we know the risks, complications, ect.). Why can't you give the smoker a corner of the parking lot, way far away from the facility, the other staff members? Instead, the smoker has to get in the car and drive around the block, or walk out to the street at 0200 am. The non-smoker gets breaks, can go to the lounge to sit, or go to the dining room for 30 min. Why can't a smoker take their breaks by going outside?

Yes, as you can probably tell by this long winded post that I am a smoker, and I do go out to the road at 0200 am to take my break. But I think that this is MY right to do so.

If I have stepped on anyone's toes, I am sorry. But,:twocents: , I have to put mine in.

's RN

Non-smokers actually get a break where you work? 'Cause it rarely happens where I work. The only people you usually see getting any form of a break is someone running outside "for a quick smoke" 6 or more times a night with call lights going off everywhere, because they are so stressed they are "going to lose it if they don't get a cig".

Not being snarky, just always surprised to find out others actually get the breaks they are supposed to. (I personally barricade myself in the break room for at least 10min at night to at least attempt to eat and drink something. Probably why people hate going out to eat with me, I'm done before they start! )

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Yeah I've heard some LTC businesses offer happy hour for the residents. I mean it's a business, and a competitive one, too. Shoot, I've taken bourbon to a pt, which he said was very good, and if not Wild Turkey, indistinguishable from it. Also I heard we've switched to Corona for the beer drinkers. The hospital has a liquor license and docs can prescribe whatever their customers want. Hospitals are businesses, too, ya know. Maybe our pharmicists should learn to mix drinks. Hm, with the boomers coming on, maybe we ought to stock Boone's Farm for the Dead Heads.

Yeah. I'd ban leaving bed. Falls happen when people leave bed. Also driving. Pts and others die that way. Maybe there should be a lunch police checking food brought in for cholesterol and excess salt. And grandchildren, I mean do they bring microbes into the facility or what?

Overall, I think that if LTC nursing is too fast and loose for a nurse, maybe prison nursing would offer the environmental control desired. ;)

:lol2: Your post cracked me up. This has to be the first time in the history of the world where the terms "LTC nursing" and "fast and loose" have been used in the same sentence (unless of course "fast and loose" is in reference to BM's in an LTC). And I had no idea that Boone's Farms is the prefered beverage of the Deadheads. I thought it was strictly the drink of the underage crowd.

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To those who say smoking is a "right." Yes it is. But, the employer also has rights, they have the right to ban smoking on the grounds. And the employees have the right to quit (the job or smoking). Smoking is an extracuricular activity. The employee does not have the obligation to accommodate this activity any more that they have the obligation to provide tennis tables for the people who like to play ping pong as an extracuricular activity. And to the non smokers, you have the right not to work for an institution that allows smoking.

And residents have the right to not live in an institution that does not accommodate their smoking.

But, "rights" and "freedom" are two different things. The elderly person might have the freedom to not live in an institution that does not allow smoking, but "freedom" is limited to resources avaliable (among other things). He may not have the resources to up and move to a more preferable place, therefore his freedoms are limited. Going out to smoke may be his only freedom he feels he still has. It may be the only thing in life still providing him pleasure (whether it will kill him or not). And the severe asthamtic's (sp?) freedoms are limited to remaining only in places where smoking does not occur. The paraplegic's freedoms are limited to places that accommodate wheelchairs... We are not a society of absolute equality, that would be impossible. If we were completely equal, our society would resemble the "Borg". Sorry non-trekkies, you won't get that reference.

I'm not saying any of this is right or wrong, just making a point.

Also, I read somewhere that living in LA is the same as smoking a pack a day.

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I do homecare in Canada. The patients aren't allowed to smoke 1 hour prior to us visiting. Sure it is their home but for that few minutes we are there it is our WORKPLACE and no one should have to work in around smoke. We also don't have smoking in public places/offices/bars/eating establishments.

It isn't part of anyone's duties - smoker or not- to have to take someone to partake. If I had a drug addict patient would i go outside with him while he buys his drugs and shoots up?

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for the patients/residents who need assistance whether it be supervision while smoking ..or because they are not allowed a lighter or matches...a plexi-glass fully infiltratrion free small building for the staff and another small building with exhaust fans for thepatients/residents..fully seperate from each other, but still where staff can observe them is working perfectly for all at a nearby facility..yayyy lol

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Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.

QUOTE~Dear ktwlpn,

I work with a nurse who is a Jehovah Witness, and that nurse will not initiate or finish any blood product. I respect that, and I will hang the blood. Then again, this nurse respect my break time to smoke. So it's tit-for-tat. Wouldn't it be nice is all nurses work together like that?QUOTE~angel'srn~~~~~~~In a perfect world we all would work together.Sadly many facilities I've worked in are far from perfect.But what happens if the only availabe nurse refuses to perform a procedure (like a tranfusuion) because of religous belief's? Do they let the patient die?

QUOTE~~~the BIG difference is if I use universal precautions when I clean up a pt., it's very unlikely that I am going to die or contract a disease from that. However, if I inhale second-hand smoke on a regular basis, lung cancer and or dying is a VERY REAL POSSIBILITY, so that is the very BIG difference!!!!!!!QUOTE~mytoon~~~~~~ Remember that the OP was talking about long term care-very,very different from acute care. Our residents have very little control over their lives-and in LTC we are ethically bound to consider their right to be as non-compliant as they wish.We can provide the proper diet,excercise and meds but we can not force any one to take the meds or follow the diet.They can also smoke and drink with a physician's order...The OP is talking about residents that must be supervised in LTC for safe smoking.And most of us in LTC seem to agree that they all have the right but if they must be supervised then it should NOT be staff's duty-...The hospitals in my area went smoke free years ago(and they mean it) so it really is not a problem there.I think that sitting outside the smoking room a few times a month or sitting on a bench across the walkway from a smoker is not going to subject anyone to dangerous levels of second hand smoke-

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