Going to Be Taking a Nic Blood Test in a Couple Weeks for Work

[Coastal Cowboy]

I'd lose my job if I tested positive.

You probably wouldn't. It depends on the state issuing the license, but it's more likely that you will be put into an intervention program that requires monitoring and counseling for substance abuse.

I personally know a number of healthcare professionals who have gone through or are still going through just such a program for substances that are much more harmful than nicotine.

One of those has more than 2 years of sobriety and is still required to attend a certain number of 12 step meetings each month.

 

[FlamingoTutu]

Cotinine testing - Day three of zero nicotine

 

[YKruss]

Cotinine testing - Day three of zero nicotine

So for DC2 the negative result, no cotinine, was confirmed on day 8 after switching from 12mg/ml to 0mg.

 

[stols001]

If this is in the US, at least in AZ, the Governor here (not sure if it was done in response to Fed legislation, but it was done) made all hospitals and grounds completely non-smoking, including staff at least 10 years ago-ish? It has been a while since I did hospital SW, so I'm not sure if drug tests for nicotine metabolites weren't required by now... It does seem unfair to say the least, I know all the hospitals around here were offering free cessation... of course.... I think in some ways the employees were more up in arms than the hospital residents... Though I was called into action by security a few times to deal with a grieving family member who was smoking on grounds in response to a bad outcome for a family member. That was my least favorite part of that job, actually. I mean, hospitals are one of the most fatal places on earth! At least allow them the parking garage, sheesh! But, it wasn't unusual to see a bunch of smokers on their lunch breaks crossing the street to Safeway to go smoke morosely....

If it isn't illegal (yet) to consume nicotine in our own homes, I really don't like this at *all*.... Yes, most people operating in hospital areas fall under one license or another, and can be censured for illicit drug use.... Only nicotine is both licit and freely available for purchase, so the fact that employers are starting to do this is not so excellent....

I'm not too proud to pass a nicotine test, for a job if I could, but I don't think I could actually Do That quite yet.... And, that might be an individual liberty I might choose to hold onto unless my family were literally starving...

Anna

 

[Bad Ninja]

The health profession has been doing this for years.

My son and daughter-in-law are nurses. It still is incomprehensible how they can get away with it. Smoking and nicotine use is still legal but they can deny employment for doing something legal in your own time.

It's more about legal liability, and insurance premium discounts.
It's a facility where they are liable for the health and care of others, and smoking can be a risk.

 

[stols001]

I get the reasoning behind insurance liability....

After watching a few nurses take "standard precautions" in MRSA identified rooms, I'd say smoking is the least of a hospital's problems, you couldn't get me in one of those things voluntarily anymore, I want to die at home. At least it will be my own idiocy causing my demise, not my caregiver's.

Gave up on hospitals after learning too much.... Don't want to do it anymore, though in some ways it's the easiest Social Work job in the US... People are ill, they are grateful for your assistance.... etc. All the SW would gather for breakfast, bemoaning their "lack of time." Hahahahah. Try public mental health. Though, I usually got assigned the ill Mental health patients.... due to too much experience with that in the past. My first training task thing was loading up this poor lady who was ill but also just... agitated, I will say. Well, she didn't want to get in the taxi, I was able to coax her inside finally.... Returned to the unit and her roommate and entire family stated this in unison: "Anna, thank you SO MUCH."


Anna

 

[Gratch]

I would tell them where to stuff that job. IMO drug tests etc at work are just humiliating. None of their biz what i do when i am on my time, and a Nic test blood test? Nope they could go to hell!

 

[Kprthevapr]

Employer: Can you pass a drug test?
Me: Sure, what drug would you like to discuss?
Employer: Next....

 

[DaveP]

I'd lose my job if I tested positive.

I'm betting that the Hospital Administrator is a Nic Nazi. I worked for a guy like that years ago. When we'd ride in his vehicle I had to wait until we stopped to get out and smoke. He was an ex-smoker who never lost the love for smoking, but gave it up because his wife was on his case about the health hazards of smoking.

There's usually a back story.

 

[listopencil]

I'm betting that the Hospital Administrator is a Nic Nazi. I worked for a guy like that years ago. When we'd ride in his vehicle I had to wait until we stopped to get out and smoke. He was an ex-smoker who never lost the love for smoking, but gave it up because his wife was on his case about the health hazards of smoking.

There's usually a back story.

In defense of people like that, smoking stinks up a car. You don't ever actually get all of your smoke out of the vehicle even trying really hard with all of the windows rolled down. You also tend to spray hot bits from the cherry of a cig and burn up auto upholstery. I never smoked in a non smoker's car.

 

[zoiDman]

I'd lose my job if I tested positive.

So.... Let me see if I have this Straight?

You are a Good Employee, who has received Positive Performance reviews, and are Well Liked, and Haven't Missed Days or even been Late, but you Tested Positive for Nicotine in a Random Test, and they hand you a Cardboard Box and tell you to clean out your desk?

 

[Nermal]

Why on earth do you have to go through that for a job?

The few Europeans I know are simply flabbergasted that we put up with testing for any kind of substances. They seem to think it's some kind of an invasion of privacy, or something.

 

[DancingHeretik]

I found this:

While there are tests to measure nicotine in the human body, it’s hard to detect in the blood after one to three days, or the urine after four days. That’s why most employers and insurance companies no longer concern themselves with how long nicotine stays in your body.


Instead, they test for a substance called cotinine, which is a metabolite of nicotine. Nicotine is turned into cotinine (metabolized) by the liver, and remains detectable in the body for up to three weeks — though usually for about one week.

I found it here:

How long does nicotine stay in your system? - Vaping360

I can't vouch for it. I'd suggest that you do some googling.

Thanks for the info.

My guess is that smokers have become so vilified as the dregs of polite society that invasive policies like the one described have become not only acceptable but commonplace in some circles, and have been applied to vapers as well because decades of progressive social engineering combined with mass dissemination of misinformation has left the general population incapable of rational thought on the matter. But that's just me.

That about sums it up.

I remember when doctors and nurses could be seen in the smoking area at the hospital on breaks.

Vaping should be set apart from smoking. Vaping has been subjected to an insane amout of medical and scientific scrutiny over the 7 years I've vaped. The only bad thing about it is that it LOOKS like smoking. That's also the GOOD thing about it. It's the safe alternative that mimics smoking. That, and you probably won't get sick or die from vaping.

If the FDA starts treating vaping as better than smoking, that might all change. Then if they want to check for smoking, they'll have to change to another test.

The few Europeans I know are simply flabbergasted that we put up with testing for any kind of substances. They seem to think it's some kind of an invasion of privacy, or something.

It is! And, it's barbaric.

 

[CMD-Ky]

The few Europeans I know are simply flabbergasted that we put up with testing for any kind of substances. They seem to think it's some kind of an invasion of privacy, or something.

There was a time when we would have thought the same. It is sad that we have come to have so much of our lives ruled by nannies or ninnies, if you will. But we sat silent and let it happen.

 

[Bunnykiller]

my how things have changed...

 

[stols001]

It is an invasion of privacy and employers are getting more and more creative with these tests. That said, a lot of companies who don't have the resources to test on hire are doing it the way it should be done-- only in response to suspicion of active use/performance issues.

That said, I have taken many a drug test in my time.... Sigh. It wasn't happening when I first started working, neither the NIH nor the gene sequencing company I worked for ever tested me for anything. I had great insurance, my kid cost me $10 TOTAL ( 1 ten dollar copay) 12 years later, my sis ended up paying $8k out of pocket costs to have her second child.

We used to have it so much easier.... I'm not even going to get into inflation....

Anna

 

[Robino1]

So.... Let me see if I have this Straight?

You are a Good Employee, who has received Positive Performance Reviews, and are Well Liked, and Haven't Missed Days or even been Late, but you Tested Positive for Nicotine in a Random Test, and they hand you a Cardboard Box and tell you to clean out your desk?

Yes, it's possible.

 

[stols001]

Happens all the time. You're likely better off in some employer's realms testing positive for *something else*, you will get censured and treatment, rather than a firing.

There are so many non-smokers these days, it makes less and less sense for employers not to minimize their risk, I think, if they're doing it for the HR benefit savings and whatnot....

Anna

 

[Bad Ninja]

Lol.

Its a health care facility, not a factory.

It's mostly about insurance and liability.

Smoking isnt exactly a clean habit/addiction.

I'm shocked that adults dont see the logic in this when specifically referring to hospital staff.

 

[stols001]

If you read a bit about the Joint Commission Process, you will see that health care outcomes in hospitals are declining, despite increasingly stringent, taxing requirements and processes, this mainly (IMO) has to do with overworked, overstressed staff making increasingly unfortunate errors. They are focusing on the wrong thing. Nurses need less patients, there need to be more staff doctors, there are many things that need to happen prior to making the OUTDOORS of a hospital non-smoking if it's far enough away from entry/exit.

I'm not going to argue that smoking isn't gross, but if you use standard precautions all the time as should be done, smoking will not make a difference (except to make employees struggling to quit because they need the job more stressed out). The Washington Post did a story on the JO a while ago, and it's been fairly well documented, since then.

I have been through the Joint Commission process several times (including at least two hospitals) it was a joke. But sure, risk actuary tables and demonizing tobacco and whatnot can fix that. Surely.

It's not that I don't see the logic Bad Ninja, and if hospitals want to hire non-smoking staff, they are free to do so. But I am in major doubt that health outcomes will drastically change....

Anna