stinking of cigarette smoke

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!

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

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.

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

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. :)

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

no, what are they doing blueyes?

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....

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.

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

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.

Totally agreed. My wife doesn't smoke, I don't smoke in my house, and I never smoke in a vehicle if there is a child or non-smoker present.

My addiction is my problem; others shouldn't have to deal with the consequences, even if those consequences are merely a bad smell.

Too bad that many smokers are too selfish to realize this.