stinking of cigarette smoke

LisaRn21 · Jan 22, 2006

UGH!!! I HATE WITH A CAPITAL H NURSES WHO SMOKE WHILE ON THE JOB!!

I work with pediatric patients and there are nurses that go downstairs sometimes 5 times in an eight hour shift plus before and after their normal breaks to smoke. I hate it! Not only are they leaving the floor and leaving me with their patients (even on the busiest day) they come back smelling horrible like smoke! I have to walk away I hate it so much!!! I can just imagine what the patients and their families think. There was a study done once that if you smoke and pick up a kid and hold them the smoke from your clothes still have poisons in it and its just as bad as second hand smoke! How awful is that especially when we get the really little babies!! ugh! I think its so unproffesional, same with body odor and too much perfume!! How about all the asthma patients! If its the last thing I do I want to outlaw smoking while on the job! lol Or smelling like it anyway!

firstaiddave907 · Jan 22, 2006

i hate the smell it makes me have a realy bad headach and makes my stomich feel sick. i think its a good idea to out law smokeing when your on the job lol smelling like it . i feel bad for the pacients and they have to smell that and the cancer pacients have to go thorough enough with the kemo . :angryfire

clee1 · Jan 22, 2006

I'm a smoker. And, I agree with you.

Thank God I don't have the need to have a smoke every hour or so... I can make it 4+ hours before I HAVE to have a cigarette. I really "stinks" for a co-worker to stick you with their work so they can feed their addiction. I also think it is unprofessional for a healthcare worker to reek of cigarette smoke when tending to patients, and I always have.

I carry breath mints in my pocket, along with a small spray bottle filled with Fabreeze: I treat my breath and clothing after a cigarette, and thoroughly scrub my hands before returning to patient care. This is not 100% effective, but it does cut the reek down substantially. I wish others would do likewise. :rolleyes:

goody1shoe · Jan 22, 2006

I think smokers breath is inappropriate for any type of patient. If I were in a hospital bed I sure wouldn't appreciate it.

sisterfaye · Jan 22, 2006

Thankyou for your honesty! It is heartening to receive so many replies, especially from smokers who also agree. Perhaps (I hope) one day smoking will be outlawed in the workplace altogether. :)

SmilingBluEyes · Jan 22, 2006

Oh it's headed that way. Hear what Scott's (gardening/fertilizer) is doing?

EmmyBP · Jan 22, 2006

no, what are they doing blueyes?

SmilingBluEyes · Jan 22, 2006

Here ya go, a link to the story:

Your smokes or your job

In less than a year, Scotts Miracle-Gro plans to start firing employees who light up — even at home

Friday, December 09, 2005

"Beginning in October, smoking will be significantly more expensive for employees of Scotts Miracle-Gro Co.

Lighting up, even at home, will cost them their jobs......"

rest of the story at:

http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2005/12/09/20051209-A1-01.html

So don't be TOO terribly surprised hospitals will follow suit in the future. It's about insurance costs and all that......

Their plan is pretty radical, help them any way they can to stop smoking and they built a muli-million dollar fitness center for the employees to work out in---but it means no smoking, even off the job! I can see this catching in other companies, including hospitals if it has not already.

Is this fair? You decide....

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Jan 22, 2006

Both parents were smokers during my growing-up years and still continue to smoke to this very day. I had to grow up in a small apartment while constantly exposed to passive smoke. You'd think I wouldn't mind the smell of smoke; however, I possess a pathological loathing of cigarette smoke.

However, I can somewhat understand the need of the addicted nurse to take 5 or 6 cigarette breaks in an 8 hour shift. In simple terms, they are hooked. The typical 1 pack-a-day smoker has cravings every 30-45 minutes and only a cigarette will fully appease the urge to smoke.

A truly addicted nurse is not going to care if she offends patients with a fetid stench, just as long as her cravings to smoke are regularly taken care of. A truly addicted parent is not going to care if they expose their kids to harmful secondhand smoke, just as long as the cravings are appeased. Half of all kids in America are exposed to smoke at home. I think this is terrible.

Sorry for going very slightly off the subject.

NurseyTee · Jan 22, 2006

My husband's workplace did this about 15 yrs ago. No smoking anywhere on the premises not even during breaktime or lunch. If you're caught, you're fired; no second chances. They did offer every employee smoking cessation therapy for 2 years prior to it's implementation.

As far as nurses smelling of cigarettes, they should be more professional than that. I have been the patient and had to deal with nurses smoking while I was battling hyperemesis. Sometimes what was worse than that was the nurses who would pile on the perfume. YUCK!! C'mon nurses, it's nursing 101 to think about the patients and nausea is a problem a lot of the time. I know when I was in nursing school, I couldn't even wear nail polish, much less, heavy perfume. Those teachings have stayed with me throughout my career.

leslie :-D · Jan 22, 2006

i'm a smoker who has attempted to quit sev'l times over the yrs.

yet i am vigilantly aware of the odors after one has smoked and would never want to inflict that added stress on my patients.

i would not be opposed to be working at a smoke-free facility, including not being able to smoke on the grounds.

what i do in the privacy of my own home or out of work is my business.

but when it comes to affecting the well-being of my pts., they will always be my 1st concern and priority.

leslie