Why do so many nurses smoke?

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  • ldrosophila
    ldrosophila Posts: 7,512 Member
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    Maybe because its legal to go away and have a smoke, they could get in serious trouble for killing some of the patients they have to deal with.

    True! We can't even legally sedate them for being a PITA! Uggghhh!!!

    This is what I was thinking better than murdering the sreaming demented old lady who keeps trying to bite you, or the patient in the next room with a raging case of cdiff, and the doctor screaming at you on the other line because he cant figure out how to read his labs.

    Oh and I forgot the nurse manager yelling at you because you forgot to document after the code on your floor.

    PS-not a nurse and think it is the most difficult and underrated position in the world. No compensation can compare with the daily abuse a nurse endures.
  • MarisaDLS2
    MarisaDLS2 Posts: 108 Member
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    I can't speak for all the nurses in the world,
    but where I work very few nurses are obese or smoke.

    Most of the nurses and doctors I work with work out religiously,
    several do marathons/mini triathalons.

    Everyone I work with watches their weight
    tries to eat healthy.

    It's a challenging job, but one that we enjoy
    or we would not last long.

    Many of us have been nurses for 10+ years,
    myself going on 30.

    Even if I won the lottery,
    I would still be an ER nurse.
  • Mustang_Susie
    Mustang_Susie Posts: 7,045 Member
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    Nursing has a high rate of obesity as well.

    Most of the nurses I know are obese.

    Um, I'm not and never have been.
    I've been a nurse for over 25 years.
    It is a stressful job, but, as with anything stressful in life, it's all a choice in how you deal with it.
  • fbmandy55
    fbmandy55 Posts: 5,263 Member
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    Give us nurses a break unless you are one people have no idea what we have to deal with! Yes its totally hypocritical as is overweight nurses, nurses who excessively drink, etc but remember we have to deal with you people every day ( or in my case night)

    I agree, having spent some time in hospital over the past few years I have seen nurses treated appallingly on occasions and stepped in to point it out many times. Some people are just A***oles when they feel well, so when they are sick they go into overdrive, nurses have my respect for the job they do!

    My soon to be MIL is a nurse and it amazed me how many lives they save, even from doctors. She told me that their are countless times that nurses are ordered to administer meds and the doctors have ordered enough to overdoes them. Not only are they caring for you and cleaning you, the can also be the last line of defense in your treatment.

    I would not want to do it.
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
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    Nursing has a high rate of obesity as well.

    Most of the nurses I know are obese.

    Um, I'm not and never have been.
    I've been a nurse for over 25 years.
    It is a stressful job, but, as with anything stressful in life, it's all a choice in how you deal with it.
    I have known a LOT of nurses over the years. Some are obese. Some are super thin. Some smoke. Some don't.

    I don't recall ever meeting one I would classify as "trashy" and none of them were eve strippers ....

    One thing, though, is they all know they're stuff.
  • Lkkiser3
    Lkkiser3 Posts: 52 Member
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    .... yeah big smokers ....and lots of doctors and nurses are also total boozbags... :drinker:

    yep pretty much every nurse I know smokes, and drinks every day! I totally get it that they are just people too.. but they see everyday the outcome of there bad habits.. that's why I don't get why they cant stop. I quit smoking 1 year ago. best decision ever.
  • bloominheck
    bloominheck Posts: 869 Member
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    ^^^ This made me think...if you really knew what my job, (and my life for that matter) entailed, you would, instead be asking, why don't nurses drink more? Lol

    :drinker:
  • alaskagirl5
    alaskagirl5 Posts: 95 Member
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    Most nurses work 12 hour shifts, that usually turn into 14 hour shifts because of the charting/loose ends they have to tie up before going home. After a shift like that, you just want to go through the drive through and get something quick because, honestly, you are starving and stressed. As a nursing student (one more semester to complete! :D) i totally get this, however, i choose not to go through drive thrus because i have seen the detrimental effects of choosing to day after day. I worked in a cardiac unit as a nurses aide and I was determined not to end up like my patients
  • SmangeDiggs
    SmangeDiggs Posts: 238 Member
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    Ive been a nurse for awhile now and im an occasional smoker
    Sometimes i find it's as simple as if you go outside and have a smoke you get your 10min break, maybe the only one you get in your 12hr shift, because even eating in the tea room your patient needs something that they are so desperate for they can't wait 10mins for you to shove some food down your gob.

    Nurses are not the only people who smoke, the whole world now knows the dangers of smoking and are equally well educated on it, we are not living in florance nightengale times, nurses no longer devote their entire lives to serving the needs of masses, nor should we have to.
  • Still1Workoutatatime
    Still1Workoutatatime Posts: 250 Member
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    this post is an eye opener
  • jharb2
    jharb2 Posts: 208 Member
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    same reason trauma doctors ride motorcycles with no helmits
  • jharb2
    jharb2 Posts: 208 Member
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    Good for you. However, nurses are actual human beings, that means we have flaws like all the other population. We have tremendous stress and while some of us chose to deal with it in a healthy way, some of us chose to squelch the stress in unhealthy ways. Just like everyone else. Doesnt mean we dont know better. The average human being knows better than to smoke or drink too much or eat too much, but we are all flawed. I have taken care of lung cancer patients who wheel their iv pole outside to smoke. Go figure .
  • SpeSHul_SnoflEHk
    SpeSHul_SnoflEHk Posts: 6,256 Member
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    Everywhere I have worked prior to this job actually had a low nurse smoking rate. I would guess about 10% or lower. It was the damned Respiratory Therapists who all chain smoked.

    This clinic I have now, there are 2 nurses who smoke out of 20, but the clerical support staff is about 60% smokers.

    I did notice when I worked at the University of Iowa, that most of the nurses I worked with (SICU overnights) were very heavy drinkers. It was definitely problem drinkers. Self medicating? Maybe. It may just have been the Iowa City culture though, It's a pretty heavy drinking town/school.
  • KANGOOJUMPS
    KANGOOJUMPS Posts: 6,473 Member
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    I don't want their stinky hands on me.
  • SpeSHul_SnoflEHk
    SpeSHul_SnoflEHk Posts: 6,256 Member
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    I work for one of the most prestigious hospitals in the world and it does bother me that most of the nurses are heavy smokers and obese but its their lives. I just feel bad for the patients that are ill and have to smell their cig stained clothes, they try to hide it with perfume but then it ends up flowered smoke, no good either. I actually feel sorry for them because they are educated people and still choose this unhealthy lifestyle!

    It is strange that they even allow nurses to wear perfume. I work in an academic medical center, and staff is not to wear perfume.
    When patients are ill the scent of perfume, (no matter how lovely it may be), can affect them negatively.:huh:

    I have had to send memos out reminding staff to not bathe in prefume before they come to work. It's horrible on a good day, and when you are sick, or battling with a COPD exacerbation, the last thing you want is to have to choke on someone's perfume.
  • Deipneus
    Deipneus Posts: 1,862 Member
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    Nursing has a high rate of obesity as well.
    I've noticed that.
  • 43932452
    43932452 Posts: 7,246 Member
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    I get that the job is stressful and all that...

    That's the reason. I used to work closely
    with the ones in the hospital .. stress
    made them weak to those little sticks.
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,741 Member
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    I could smell cigarette smoke on a nurse I had in the hospital recently.
    I thought of saying something, but as she was jamming a tube up my urethra at the time, I went for the whole discretion being the better part of keeping my pee pee thing.

    I spent a month in the hospital in October and most of the nurses were obese and they just looked like they had been around the block lol. You could definitely tell the smokers from the non by their teeth and skin. Gross.

    Definitely this. I used to work in the medical field (not as a nurse) and I'm telling you 80% of them (including RNs, yes) were sleazy ex druggies, chain smokers, obese and constantly drinking huge sodas and jamming fast food and donuts down their gobs. Like to the point of freaking me out. They also saw no reason, apparently, to ever fix their hair or makeup at all and wore hideous scrubs.

    The other 20% were all of 24 yrs old and model gorgeous, impeccably turned out, etc. They usually lasted about a year before going back to school to become NPs or doctors...or marrying well and becoming SAHMs.
  • mkmerrill
    mkmerrill Posts: 74 Member
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    Wow...so many judgmental people. First off the majority of PEOPLE are obese so not all nurses are fatties or smoke. I however am a nurse and a former smoker. We all deal with is differently but don't judge. When is the last time you held a baby while it was dying because its dad beat the **** out of it? Oh...you prob think a nurses job is to clean up **** and have no idea what we really do. I love my job, and if I choose to smoke....so be it. Be grateful you have people willing to care for you and your families. *kitten*, smoker or not.......
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,741 Member
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    I work for one of the most prestigious hospitals in the world and it does bother me that most of the nurses are heavy smokers and obese but its their lives. I just feel bad for the patients that are ill and have to smell their cig stained clothes, they try to hide it with perfume but then it ends up flowered smoke, no good either. I actually feel sorry for them because they are educated people and still choose this unhealthy lifestyle!

    It is strange that they even allow nurses to wear perfume. I work in an academic medical center, and staff is not to wear perfume.
    When patients are ill the scent of perfume, (no matter how lovely it may be), can affect them negatively.:huh:


    I agree...even some of the social service agencies I visited in my previous job were banned from ANY fragrance for this reason, and they weren't working with patients or in any medical capacity.

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