Why do so many nurses smoke?
Replies
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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.0 -
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.0 -
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.0 -
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.0 -
I have known a LOT of nurses over the years. Some are obese. Some are super thin. Some smoke. Some don't.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 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.0 -
.... 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.0 -
^^^ 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:0 -
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!
) 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 0 -
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.0 -
this post is an eye opener0
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same reason trauma doctors ride motorcycles with no helmits0
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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 .0
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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.0 -
I don't want their stinky hands on me.0
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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.0 -
I've noticed that.Nursing has a high rate of obesity as well.0 -
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.0 -
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.0 -
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.......0
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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.0 -
Wow...sorry after my 14 hour shift saving lives I needed to sleep in and did not do my make up. Oh and no I do not want to be a doctor because I love being a nurse! Guess what ....we are college graduates too and choose to work in a industry where people like you are clearly ignorant....because we LOVE it. We put up with the jerks like you because we actually care people. Maybe you should tell a nurse THANK YOU!!!!!!!0
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LOL After I finished my NCLEX exam I finished a bottle of wine while crying positive that I have failed...the exam was at 7am.. lolIt's funny you mention this. I quit smoking until I got into nursing school from the stress and the eating helped me calm down after a patient I got used to seeing in the hallway or in Long term health ward/Oncology unit would pass away.
trying to stay away from a 12 hour shift was difficult too.
I guess its all in how you deal with stress/emotions..for me personally I dealt with eating and smoking because I'd feel too tired to even think about going to the gym after being on my feet all day. And I was just a nursing student then.
By the time I graduated nursing school all of the nursing students were on prescription xanax. Except me...probably 'cuz I ate and smoked. Also blew up like a balloon.
I realized nursing wasn't my thing...I was afraid I'd either be one of the tainted nurse population that would be hateful years down the road or would still have issues being emotionally objective and not cry on the way home because the patient in the terminal ward passed.
HELLO DESK JOCKEY WORLD! haha
Lol. I felt like I knew nothing on the exam when I took the NCLEX. I was also the first one out of there, so I thought I had failed too, but NOPE! :happy:
Two days later I got my license! high five on thinking the worst! funny, when I stopped doing nursing and got into IT, i quit smoking...and lost weight lol...the stress...and lack of sleep...and can mess people up.0 -
You're in IT and you sleep?:noway:
Two days later I got my license! high five on thinking the worst! funny, when I stopped doing nursing and got into IT, i quit smoking...and lost weight lol...the stress...and lack of sleep...and can mess people up.0 -
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.
I am not a sleazy ex (or current) druggie.
I do not smoke.
I am not obese. (5'7" and 118#)
I drink one can of Diet Coke at the beginning of my shift and then water.
I eat a Lean Pocket and fresh vegetables on break (if I get one, otherwise it's a fruit and nut bar to hold me 8+ hours).
I always shower, style my hair, wear make-up and a size small in scrubs (required by my company's uniform policy).
I am 46.
I have my Bachelor's degree.
I have married well and raised four children.
The "model gorgeous" is debatable.
(Thank you to the poster who said " they all know their stuff". :flowerforyou:
Yes, we do.)0 -
bump0
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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:
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.
I am not a sleazy ex (or current) druggie.
I do not smoke.
I am a US women's size 10 (sometimes 8).
I drink coffee or water at work, I haven't had a soda, diet or otherwise in years.
I rarely drink, I never get drunk, it's unhealthy for you and unbecoming.
I don't eat fast food.
I eat a salad I've prepared from home for my meal, fruits and non fat yogurt for snacks.
I can't tell you the last time I had a donut. Many years ago, I do not miss them in the least.
I always shower, wear make-up and a size medium in scrubs (required by my hospital's uniform policy).
I am 55.
I have been a nurse for 30 years now, in ER.
I cannot tell you how many lives I have helped save with team effort on everyone's part in the ER,
After 30 years, it's a big number.
I have two Bachelor's degrees in 2 fields, Zoology and Nursing.
I have married well (a college professor) and raised a daughter 22,
who is now getting her PhD at Purdue in Economics (fully funded by Purdue).
I was gorgeous at 24, at 55 still pretty good looking I have to say.
We have to know our stuff or else we wouldn't be able to do the work we do.
Thank you to who posted that.
All the nurses I know pursue continuing education in emergency medicine.0 -
Smoking is banned at the hospital I work at but I don't really know any nurses that smoke.0
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I don't want their stinky hands on me.
So you would rather bleed out laying in the parking lot cause the ER Nurse smokes ? WTF0 -
Having been a nurse for 43 yrs my answer to this question is... It was the ONLY way we got a break. If you went down to eat and stayed down there for 30 mins your co-workers would get angry. They had to watch YOUR pts and theirs for that time. It was always expected of you to bring your food back to the floor and eat it between taking care of pts. However no one minded when the smokers went out on break to smoke. After all... they could no longer smoke inside as they use to do. I worked the night shift 7PM to 7AM. I would go stir crazy inside the whole night ... so I started going out with the smokers to get away from the floor or the ER which ever I was working. They got angry because they said I didn't smoke. So... I started. Stupid... YES it was. Not only did I smell bad when I went back to my pts but I felt bad because I didn't want to be a smoker. I am now retired from nursing and a non-smoker again. Now my problem is trying to get back to the wt I was when I was nursing. I gained at least 50 lbs since I retired and now need to lose them.0
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Because if you smell of smoke it stops you from smelling patients - faeces, infected urine, vomit, puss, ruptured bowels, unwashed bodies, cheesy feet and the strong stench of sanctimony coming from some of the people in this thread.
Also I've never smoked and have never been obese or overweight, neither of the vast majority of my colleagues either in the UK or Australia. I've never wanted to train as a doctor, never looked trashy and have been in the PROFESSION for over 20 years0
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