Union gave away random drug testing

[Emergent]

Our hospital pushed hard for random drug testing in our latest contract. The union gave in, in favor of some other items.

They have started pulling people from their sfifts, escorting to employee health nurse, and demanding urine.

My feelings are mixed. I'm against drug use generally, but actually don't care what people do on their days off. As long as you aren't diverting or impaired on the job, that's good enough for me. I don't see how random testing people who aren't acting suspiciously helps.

There are a lot of things that can impair you at work that don't involve drugs. Sleep deprivation comes to mind. Personal turmoil in one's life can distract a person from doing a good job at work.

Another thing, I've read on the recovery site here that there are things that can interfere with an accurate drug test. Eating certain foods can cause a false positive. It seems like it might be a big complication for innocent people.

As a side note it seems like the union gives up more and more every contract.

[MunoRN, RN]

I've worked at a place that pushed for broad random testing, they were pretty straightforward about the reason why; it's cheaper to 'randomly' weed out (no pun intended) a portion of their staff and replace them with newer nurses who are at the bottom or near the bottom of the pay scale. They don't have any legal mechanism to just get rid of a portion of their staff, so this is the alternative.

[dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN]

As a legit alcoholic in my state's monitoring program, I find this sort of stuff disheartening. It picks up a lot of pot smokers and people with expired scripts that then get thrown into the mire of the monitoring program. It dilutes the point of monitoring and makes the required meetings a cesspit of (justified) anger -- it also makes me afraid to openly talk about my own addiction and recovery in that space because you never know which non-addict is judging you.

[Emergent, RN]

I've worked at a place that pushed for broad random testing, they were pretty straightforward about the reason why; it's cheaper to 'randomly' weed out (no pun intended) a portion of their staff and replace them with newer nurses who are at the bottom or near the bottom of the pay scale. They don't have any legal mechanism to just get rid of a portion of their staff, so this is the alternative.

This makes sense, considering the general philosophy of this corporation. The union scale is rather steep, and they are clearly a profiteering company, first and foremost.

I sure would like to see a return to the higher ideals in healthcare, and in society at large. Both the drug problem and the greed problem are the result of a spiritual problem, in my opinion. We see this in all races and classes.

[txbornnurse]

Here is my opinion about random UDS. Back in the dark days of yesteryear when I was active duty my husband at the time was over the age of 25 and I was under the age of 25. In its' infinite wisdom the military decided I was at high risk of drug use due to my age and I swear I peed in the cup at least three times a month for several months. Always negative.

Meanwhile my over the magic age of 25 husband, also a nurse, was the one diverting from the narc cabinet at his unit in the hospital. He was finally caught with an entire package of Demerol 100 mg Tubex in his uniform pocket when someone noticed an unusual bulge in his tunic top. The moral of my story: no matter what the criteria are for selection of the participants of the random UDS the effectiveness of actually catching a diverting nurse is slim at best. Save the screens for bona fide cause.

[catsmeow1972, BSN, RN]

Given the WIDE net that is cast in order to justify shoving people into monitoring programs, as a person above said, the likelihood of snagging the true addict, with the utilization of random screening without justification such as behavior, narc inconsistencies, etc. is pretty slim. A person who may be taking prescribed things without abusing it, now has to disclose to their employer, information about their personal health that is otherwise none of anyone's business. Ask anyone with chronic pain issues. Frequently the medications that are screened for in the average drug test are what keeps them out of bed and functioning. How is being targeted as an addict going to help or change that. It's not!

That being said, a person that comes up positive for illegal things (pot, cocaine, etc) whole other story.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

What did the union get on the other side of this deal? Typically there is a big concession for the union to allow random drug screenings.

Which brings up the next point, why is the hospital willing to invest a considerable amount in the drug screening? Have there been diversion problems previously identified? A news story? A JCHAO problem?

Personally, as someone who does not use illegal drugs, if I was getting some decent benefit from random drug screening, I'll pee in a cup once a day if I have to.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

A person who may be taking prescribed things without abusing it, now has to disclose to their employer, information about their personal health that is otherwise none of anyone's business. Ask anyone with chronic pain issues. Frequently the medications that are screened for in the average drug test are what keeps them out of bed and functioning. How is being targeted as an addict going to help or change that. It's not!

If they have a valid script then they wouldn't labelled an addict or put in a monitoring program.

[Guest219794]

Seems like there are some mixed feelings about this.

A question for those against it:

Is there anybody you feel should be subject to random drug screens?

How about school bus drivers?

Airline pilots?

Nuclear plant inspectors?

Police officers?

DEA agents?

Is the freedom from drug random drug screens universal?

Are there certain illegal drugs that are OK, but others that are not? For example- Most here probably agree that smoking a little weed while off is no different from a glass of wine. And most probably agree than anybody injecting speedballs or smoking meth is a bad fit for nursing. But, without blanket prohibition, where is the line? Wouldn't worry me a bit to know that my nurse ate magic mushrooms while on vacation. What about periodically dropping acid on the weekend?

One poster rightly pointed out the problem of lumping addicts and drug users together. How can an employer distinguish?

In my opinion, there are certain professions one should avoid if using drugs is important to you. There are thousands of jobs out there that don't interfere with responsible illegal drug use.

[bgxyrnf, MSN, RN]

As a side note it seems like the union gives up more and more every contract.

I'm curious: Did you and your colleagues make sure that your staff representatives on the bargaining committee were adamantly opposed to these clauses in the contract?

The union is simply a representative of the collective you. Make sure that the collective you makes your views heard.

Personally, I didn't care that my last hospital didn't do drug testing nor that my present one does.

[dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN]

If they have a valid script then they wouldn't labelled an addict or put in a monitoring program.

If they want to give you a hard time, they will. I have a friend who is now under monitoring because they did a chart audit on him after a random UDS came back positive for a med that he had a valid script (benzo) for. He had a string of five shifts within the last six months where he gave "more pain meds then anyone else on his floor" and one time in the last 12 months where he had 1 mg of dilaudid unaccounted for between what was charted as given and what was charted as wasted.

It's a slippery slope argument but it really doesn't take much once that ball gets rolling.

[MrNurse(x2), ADN]

I'd be irritated about being pulled away from pt care to drop trou. Pick my day off, and I would require payment at my hourly rate for the time in transit and at the lab. Because I don't do any work off the clock.

I mean I have nothing to hide -- the Ambien I take and any opioid painkillers I have taken all come with a valid Rx, and are ONLY taken on my days off. And the grocery store my mom has worked for for 25 yrs also does random UDSs, so don't see it as a sign of disrespect to RNs/LPNs... although I would hope that ALL employees would be subject to UDSs -- particularly pharmacy staff who has access to the controlled substances as well. If only nurses have this policy, I would really hope your union grows a spine because that is NOT okay.

Your cavalier attitude will not do anything for your BON, their stance is for patient safety and they are pretty clear, any opioid in your system, on or off duty is enough for discipline. They don't care if they are needed so you can work,they don't care if this is what is keeping you off disability.

[1sttime]

The hospital likely gets a lower insurance rate if they drug screen everyone... If they really cared they would have a different mechanism for catching people. Have a script for oxy, only steal oxo's... etc

Many civilized countries do not drug test, many jobs with the state/county do not drug test either (not even during the hire process). It is purely a way to make an average person feel like they are under the control of others... and get people who use marijuana into drug treatment...

Bad policies make for unhappy employees.