Stupid q's: Has smoking cigarettes kept you from getting a job?

Despareux · Sep 4, 2012

If you're going to be a smoker, that's your choice--do it on your own time. No smoker should ever be allowed to come to work smelling like smoke. Even the smell lingering on someone's clothing or hair can trigger an asthma attack in some patients. Nor should you ever be allowed to smoke on facility premises; makes the facility look really bad and nobody should ever have to walk through the nasty stench of poisonus puff.

SweetPEI · Sep 4, 2012

I actually had to look it up to find out what happened to her. I also made a mistake she was actually trying to switch the needles she had stolen off the cart to shoot herself up with, with new needles,not the other way around, but she lost track of which needles she was using. So I guess she wasn't intentionally trying to give patients hepatitis like I thought. Not that it matters, what she did was wrong. Anyways here's an article about what happened to her Federal Appeals Court Rejects Sentence Reduction For Former Surgery Tech « CBS Denver

That's just horrible. How long did she think she would get away with it?

rubato, ASN, RN · Sep 4, 2012

If the government truly cared about their nation's health, they would prohibit the manufacture and sale of tobacco, AND offer everyone the patch. That's never going to happen, so disqualifying smokers from employment is very hypocritical.

That will never happen. Imagine all the tax revenue that would be lost on that. Sad but true.

I am actually okay with hospitals not hiring smokers. I don't feel it's a protected right. It's a choice. And, an unhealthy one. So many diseases are linked to smoking. Yes, people eat junk and drink. If they do those to excess, then I guess it's up to the hospitals to decide what they want to do about it. The good news is that if I have one glass of wine, at home with dinner on Saturday night, I'm not risking your health. If you blow your smoke in my face, you are risking mine.

RainbowDash · Sep 4, 2012

I'm a student and won't be graduating for some time yet, however I've made the decision to work on quitting *now*. Not only do I personally feel that a smoking nurse is inappropriate simply because the smell sticks to you and can upset/offend/disgust your patients, or even exacerbate some of their conditions... but I'm also very afraid of the very real health ramifications that smoking comes with. I never want COPD, I never want cancer, and I *especially* don't want my young children to become so accustomed to the scent that they end up with a predisposition to smoking, as I had when I was a girl via my own mother - I tried my first cigarette at 13, and it didn't bother me nearly as much as it should have.

It's not illegal to smoke - and smoking is a very VERY hard habit to get rid of completely. Trust me, I've quit four times for four pregnancies and I've come back afterward because of stress (and other people in my family smoking didn't help me fight the urge), stress weakens my resolve and I succumb to the cravings that never truly seemed to leave me. However, we have to decide what is best for us, our familes, our patients, and our lives... and I know that I am finally ready to quit for good. My local hospitals etc are all smoke free, so it's not like you can feasibly even TAKE a smoke break anyway.. so in the end, why bother smoking at all? :)

Just my thoughts on this topic. :)

tortorRN · Sep 5, 2012

Smoking doesn't just affect the smoker themselves. It affects many other things such as the people around you *ESPECIALLY* the patients and the cleanliness of the hospital itself. I am sure you are familiar with the grim that smoke leaves whether if its on your skin, on your clothes, on your shoes, it's everywhere regardless if you are a once-a-week smoker, or a chain smoker. For those who say that you shower and do not smoke before work, it is likely that you sit down to tie your shoes in a chair that you smoke in or drive in a car that you smoke in. Even if you don't smoke between your shower and work, you're getting covered in the grim from your previous smoke sessions.

That, to me, is disgusting. You can cause someone to die by triggering an asthma attack if they inhale any contents from your smoking. How would you feel after something like that? I might be slightly exaggerating in this scenario, but you have to face the fact that it IS indeed a possibility.

Don't try to say that hospitals should not hire people who are huge tanners or overweight. Why? Because while these things MAY raise insurance premiums or also a personal choice... they in fact do not cause HARM to the patients or other employees at the hospital/facility. This is what sets smoking apart from these two unhealthy habits. Smoking causes harm to not just yourself but others as well.

I believe the reason why hospitals are not hiring smokers is because of the fact that it can cause harm to the patients or cause the environment to become unsanitary.

Also, don't you ever feel hypocritical when you are putting oxygen on your patient or helping a smoker quit? Just wondering.

One last thing, I don't know a good thing about smoking so why do you keep doing it?

Here's my story with Nicotine: My husband chewed tobacco for 9 years and quit in a WEEK just this past May. He had medication that he took for 2 weeks and also was able to use a patch, but he didn't like it. He chewed for the first week he was taking the medication but it came to the point where he was getting no effects from the tobacco because the medication was blocking the nicotine receptors. So he just quit cold turkey after chewing a can a day for 9 years and through a deployment. If he can do it, you can do it too. There are plenty of hotlines out there and Nicotine Cessation classes.

JZ_RN · Sep 5, 2012

JZ_RN sounds like you are talking about just plain lazy people who use smoking as an excuse. The fact that one smokes does not make them automatically a nurse who runs away from hard work and responsibilities. If you don't take a break to eat or pee thats on you.

Sorry that I don't take 12 breaks a day and leave patients waiting. Meanwhile the smokers complain when they come back in that the work's not all done.

ticklemern · Sep 5, 2012

Are you SERIOUSLY comparing religion to smoking?

Seems like it always been "Smokers" vs the "Non-Smokers" I'm a non-smoker. I hate cigarettes. I hate the smell of it. It literally makes my stomach hurt when I get a whiff of it. I don't get why people do it knowing its effects. And I have no sympathy for them. Point, blank period. If I were a pt in the hospital and had a nurse who smelled of cigs, I'd request a new one. Love it or hate it - that's me.

That being said, oddly enough, my husband smokes. He respects me enough to not smoke near or around me. He says as a non-smoker I just don't get it. And he's right - I don't.

So I agree with hospital policies that implement a smoke free campus. I don't think my hospital will necessarily not hire you, but they do tell you no smoking on campus, AND to careful not to smell like it as well. I work with nurses who smoke and you would never know unless they told you. I admit, they follow procedures well, and their smoking in no way interferes with patient care.

abiklags · Sep 5, 2012

I do not know the policies of the hospitals around me and I don't need to know. I don't smoke. the smell makes me sick. My friend grew up in a smoking house and *likes* the smell. don't ask. I used to tell her to clean her wool coat b/c it absorbed so much odor and it made me cough. I think smoking is slow suicide. My dad used to smoke. he quit in July; I was born in march 3 weeks early. pretty obvious why he quit. he did it cold turkey and he says its the only way to do it and encourages teenagers to quit.

JZ_RN · Sep 5, 2012

On top of that it's hard to convince my patients to stop smoking when the whole place reeks of cigarettes and they see my coworkers outside lighting up..

Sadala, ADN, RN · Sep 13, 2012

Do you also test for other drugs? What if someone isn't a smoker but they have a major drug problem? Reason I ask is cause I live in Colorado, right by Rose Hospital where that surgical technologist got caught a few years ago, switching her used needles that she used to shoot up with hospital needles and ended up infecting patients with hepatitis. I just thought if the hospital was administering drug tests that wouldn't have happened.

Actually, its my understanding that she was given an initial drug screen, which she passed somehow. However, I don't believe the screen included fentanyl anyway - and likely she didn't have access to fentanyl until after she began to work there.

She infected 35 patients (they they know of) by switching syringes of fentanyl for syringes of saline - using the same syringes. So the patients received saline instead of fentanyl, basically, AND they were exposed to hep c. She apparently is thought to have exposed almost 6000 patients.

One could argue that perhaps random testing (which is conducted at very few hospitals) for health care workers that includes the drugs to which they have access would be helpful. But that's another topic.

ComeTogether, LPN · Sep 13, 2012

I'm a smoker and not proud of it. I work in a smoke free facility and I don't smoke at work. Ive quit several times my most successful ( if you can call it that ) attempt was with the e cigarette. I don't see how someone who uses that should be shunned for it. I wouldn't have passed a nicotine test while I was using that. Although people can have whatever opinions they want about smokers and I do agree it's not professional to go to work smelling like a cigarette, someone who had never struggles with addiction has no idea what they are talking about. Quitting smoking is harder than quitting crack. Seriously. I'm not making excuses but as a smoker I can not tell you the toll it takes on me every time I quit. I wish to god I never started. It makes you confused, depressed, grumpy, hungry, the list goes on and on and on and it lasts for days. Everyone should try to quit but it's not as easy as some people think. For me everyone I quit I gain weight, which at this point is more dangerous than smoking. It's a never ending battle. Just thought I'd share.

"No day but today"

mls4455 · Sep 16, 2012

So after reading all these posts I've decided to quit smoking I'm on day 3 now. I did the first two days cold turkey, but the cravings were so strong and I was having too hard of a time concentrating I decided to do the patch. They say the first 3 days are the hardest but I don't think I could have made it the rest of the week without some sort of help. I'm in cna classes right now so I figured might as well start now, so I don't have to worry about it when I start nursing school in a couple years. It's really really hard though, if I succeed, I think I will be more proud of this than anything else I've done or will do in my life.