smoking?

[bled12345]

How many smokers are out there in EMS?

 

[BossyCow]

You might try a thread search. This has been covered in a previous thread

 

[bled12345]

I never understood the "search it" attitude, yeah of course questions are going to be repeated, but if everyone just searched something they wanted to ask 100% of the time this forum would be pretty dead.

 

[Ridryder911]

Well it would be better than re-hashing it all over again, and no one responding to your question because it has been previously discussed.

Many EMS forums request that you search before posting to be sure that the subject has not been covered thoroughly.

R/r 911

 

[mikie]

Around the city here, it's all private ambulance. I always see them parked in a strip-mall parking lot standing outside their rig smoking.

I wouldn't want to be the pt. and have the EMT/Medics smell like smoke when they're treating the pt.

 

[LucidResq]

That's pretty messed up. I don't care if you smoke like a chimney outside of work, but I definitely think it's wrong to smoke during work. I understand that it can be hard for smokers to go without a cig for 8-24 hour shifts, but I'm sure it's really unpleasant to be sick and in the back of ambulance with someone who reeks of cigarette smoke. I've frequently seen it and smelled it at the hospitals too.

 

[KEVD18]

i disagree with the theory that a person shouldn't be allowed to smoke while at work. during patient care, absolutely not. even in the bus isn't right. but i wouldn't allow anybody to tell me i cant smoke in between calls. anybody you encounter in your day could be a smoker. the person who serves your food at a restaurant, the cashier at the video store, anybody. would you tell them they cant smoke?

if the biggest concern my patient has is the smell of cigarettes, then they're not really sick.

 

[Medic51]

i disagree with the theory that a person shouldn't be allowed to smoke while at work. during patient care, absolutely not. even in the bus isn't right. but i wouldn't allow anybody to tell me i cant smoke in between calls. anybody you encounter in your day could be a smoker. the person who serves your food at a restaurant, the cashier at the video store, anybody. would you tell them they cant smoke?

if the biggest concern my patient has is the smell of cigarettes, then they're not really sick.

Well I have a few opinions on the subject. I myself do not smoke first of all. I see wonderful points from everyone here. However, What you do during your free time while not running a call is your business as long as it does not effect your judgment of anything. Cigarettes do not do that. People smoking is a part of life, I don't agree with new laws that ban people from certain areas either. This is supposed to be a country of freedom of choice. If your company bans it, Fine. At least there is a choice. Freedom of choice is the matter at hand. But you should not have to just cause someone don't like the smell. Just because you smoke does not make you a bad person. If you don't like it, You have the freedom of choice to leave, Simply put.

 

[LucidResq]

Believe me, I am not saying that smokers are bad people or that smoking should be banned by any law or rule. I just think that choosing not to smoke, even between calls or patient contact, would be much more conducive to an image of professionalism as a health care provider. You're not going to offend any patients if you lack the smell of cigarette smoke, but you will certainly offend some patients if you do smell like smoke.

I'm not just discriminating against the odor of cigarettes. I think it is also counterproductive to patient care to bathe in that Axe body spray stuff or otherwise give off a strong, unpleasant odor. Granted, BO and bad breath happen sometimes, but I'd personally like to avoid doing things that tend to create odors that offend many people.

If you don't smell after having a quick smoke between calls, then fine, knock yourself out. It doesn't really matter then.

 

[ffemt8978]

Well I have a few opinions on the subject. I myself do not smoke first of all. I see wonderful points from everyone here. However, What you do during your free time while not running a call is your business as long as it does not effect your judgment of anything. Cigarettes do not do that. People smoking is a part of life, I don't agree with new laws that ban people from certain areas either. This is supposed to be a country of freedom of choice. If your company bans it, Fine. At least there is a choice. Freedom of choice is the matter at hand. But you should not have to just cause someone don't like the smell. Just because you smoke does not make you a bad person. If you don't like it, You have the freedom of choice to leave, Simply put.

Coming from a state where it is ILLEGAL to smoke in any public building, or outdoors within 25 feet of the entrance of any public building, I certainly agree with this statement. At what point do we stop letting the government decide what is right for us, and start making these decisions on our own (accepting the consequences of these decisions, also)?

 

[VentMedic]

I started this thread last summer.

Hospital Bans Smoking
http://www.emtlife.com/showthread.php?t=4953

Tech companies had already set the trend and yes it is very legal. Since that post, other hospitals have followed in the ban.

As a Respiratory Therapist, I am delighted that the ban is catching on in the healthcare industry. Yes, for those of you that smoke, your patients who have reactive airway disease, asthma, cancer, chemo treatment or AIDS can smell the smoke on you and do complain about having to put up with that in the close quarters of an ambulance. Parents with small children are also appalled when their babies with RAD must be exposed to you.

Yes, it is a hard addiction to quit. But, it also depends on how selfish you want to be for your patients' well being and for your family. Do you want to put your family through what the future may hold for you in the way of COPD? Do you also want that future for them with 2nd hand smoke exposure?

 

[mikie]

Personally, I like to smoke in the back of the ambulance, with all the O2 @ 25LPM. Lighting up makes for a more pleasant time. :lol:

Has anyone ever had a pt. who either wanted to stop to smoke, smoke before getting in the back or try to light up inside while transporting?

 

[VentMedic]

Has anyone ever had a pt. who either wanted to stop to smoke, smoke before getting in the back or try to light up inside while transporting?

Smoking used to be allowed everywhere inside the hospitals including the patients' rooms and nursing stations. It was not uncommon for patients to be smoking while awaiting the ambulance for a routine transfer at the hospital entrance. Smoking was permitted up front for the crew but not in the back with the O2. For long transports like some of the long VA "shuttles" I used to do, we would pull over for a break and unload the patient to have a smoke. That included the tracheostomy and laryngostomy patients.

 

[JPINFV]

Sounds like it was kinda of a pain in the neck back then.

 

[eggshen]

Quit a few days ago....seeing spiders.

Egg

 

[BossyCow]

Smoking used to be allowed everywhere inside the hospitals including the patients' rooms and nursing stations. It was not uncommon for patients to be smoking while awaiting the ambulance for a routine transfer at the hospital entrance. Smoking was permitted up front for the crew but not in the back with the O2. For long transports like some of the long VA "shuttles" I used to do, we would pull over for a break and unload the patient to have a smoke. That included the tracheostomy and laryngostomy patients.

I remember hanging out in the hospital smokers lounge doing the NY times crossword puzzle with the hospital administrator, every morning at 9am break.

 

[VentMedic]

I remember hanging out in the hospital smokers lounge doing the NY times crossword puzzle with the hospital administrator, every morning at 9am break.

The RTs, Pulmonologists and Cardiologists were probably in there too.

 

[mikie]

That included the tracheostomy and laryngostomy patients.

Through their stoma? ...not surprised

 

[emtbhardy]

i use to transport a pt that was on O2 to dialysis and that pt would never go untill they finished smoking. I learned the first time I ever got that pt not to say anything about that. Lets justs say it was the joke on the newbie.

 

[Keith]

smoker or not, :censored::censored::censored::censored: it, as long as you know your :censored::censored::censored::censored: and can perform your job well, what does it matter?