Smoking Policy

[kimmyh 0]

I was curious to know if anyone else out there is responsible for passing out cigarettes to the residents? I have to pass out cigarettes every two hours from 8am to 4pm. I have about 12 smokers at my facility. This takes out alot of time for my activities. I am also responsible for ordering the cigarettes and picking them up with separate reciepts for the residents. It is hard scheduling activities around the cigarette schedule and often I have to stop midway through an activity to pass them out. Just wondering if anyone out there has the same problem and any suggestions to remedy this would be appreciated.

[StacieO 0]

WOW!!!!!

That is completely the opposite of my situation! We are a smoke free facility & therefore, no one smokes (including staff)! Residents/families are given this info prior to admission & they come in w/ that understanding. We do have a short term resident who is wearing a patch - whether he continues w/ this at home or not, but he cannot smoke here. Before we went smoke free, it was not designated for a certain dept. All dept. assisted w/ this. If it's part of their care/ careplan, then it should be an interdisciplinary approach. I am allergic to it & I could not physically do that!!!!!

Stacie

[Stacy 0]

I think this is common for facilities who do have a lot of smokers. I had consulted at a facility that did the same thing. Only, they did not have to pass out cigarettes that often. Is there any way you can change the times so that it does not affect the activity schedule? Is there any other department that can help while activities are going on...Social Services?

 

I agree, it does take up a lot of time. See if you can talk with the administrator and ask him what he thinks is most important...activities or cigarettes.

 

Stacy

[Guest charmaine from new zealand]

hi i am a recreation officer from new zealand , in the rest home that i work at we have various situations . One resident looks after her own cigarettes and the other resident has there cigarettes given out by the reg nurse. and they all smoke outside.

[kristas_mom3 0]

I worked in a Nursing Home that had a similar situation to yours. However, there were CNA's/Social Service Assistants/Psychosocial Aides who also smoked. They jumped at the chance of monitoring smoke breaks. We had a room at the end of the first floor hall and the staff who also smoked took their smoke breaks in there as well. So, the only time we had to actually GET someone to monitor.....was when no one else was in there! And, that's when the smokers jumped at the chance! But every two hours is a bit much!

[Pennie 26]

A lot of the homes are going to smoke free but theu still have to honor the smokers rights that are already in the facility.

At the facility I worked at there was designated times for smoking. The cigs. were kept at the nurse station. The residents could only have 2 cigs per smoking time. They also had to be watched by staff or someone who was comptent. No one wanted to take on the job of watching them it was a general complaint by all Depts. So the way we handled it was that evey dept. was responsible for a certain smoking time everyday. This worked out great because you only had to watch them once a day & we were able to work out a schedule that didn't interfer with out depts.

I used the smoke break as a time to also hold an activity, since most of the smokers did not attend them. They were to busy watching the clock & wating for the next cig. So this worked out well for my dept. We also had a Res. who was alert, orentitaed etc.. who was a volunteer. He watched the res. on one of the shifts since he also smoked.

It was the Social Service Job to get the cigs. S/he would get the money from the res. trust funds, although we encouraged the family members to buy the cigs & bring them to the facility. I was able to get a family member who volunteered to come get the money & go buy the cigs once a month fo rus. This helped & usually this was the only cig run that we had to make every month.

So talk to your Admin. about this, explain how it interfers w/ your act. & how you have to stop in the middle of one. This is a deficeny waiting! Also it is not fair to the other res. or you. Try and get it to be everyones job. Good luck P

[skay 0]

I have worked at 3 facilties in my time, I've been a smoke-free and now it is smoking. Luckily SS purchases the Resident's cigs when they do they're 'monthly' shopping for the Residents. The smoke schedule is split up mostly done by different "halls" but you know they do put one of the times on 'Activities', SS came up with the schedule and it is followed very closely, no other depts. do the smoke breaks but CNA's and Act. I am a cancer survivor and my dr. ordered me to stay away from the smoke but I was told differently and we also had a tech to get a dr.'s excuse to keep from doing it and she was given three options and lets just say she don't work there anymore. So...I have no suggestions but you do need to get SS involved cause the cigarettes are a Resident's right and they need to be responsible for getting them, that should not be your responsibility!!!! When we do do the smoke break we so usually do an activity such as trivia.

Good Luck. ;-)

[mayadeaundre 0]

With all the other things AD do. Cigs should not be one, Our owner made our facility semi-smoke free but all the residents keep their own GOOD LUCK :-P

[Guest Guest_Cheryl]

I am the Activity Director at a small 38 Resident Nursing Home. I am responsible for purchasing the residents cigarettes (with seperate receipts) and bringing the residents outside for their cigarette breaks. They are not allowed to keep their own cigarettes or lighters, so the Activity Dept. keeps them. I take the residents outside to smoke at 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. A nurses aide takes them out again at 7 p.m. No one is allowed to smoke inside the facility. I have it scheduled into the Activity Calendar as Smoking Group, so it doesn't take any time away from another sceduled activity. We usually spend a little time reminiscing while we're outside so it has a little social aspect to it.

[bsorrells 0]

:cry: I also have to do smoke break for our residents , we used to have several scheldule to were department heads would each take a time 9:30, 11:00, 2:00 , 4:00, 7:00. 9:00 11:00pm I had a hard time getting them down to do smoke break , then when I would call to remind them that it was there turn they would get upset, then it came up in resident council twice and I just got tired of fighting so now me and the medical records person do all smoke breaks up to 4:00 ,

the evening shift will do the evning time with sometimes arguments of who is going to do it, sometimes medical records person has to go with a patient to the dr. office so that leaves me to do them all. I am so tired of this , half the residents dont know how to hold a cig. or they burn themselfs, or better yet miss behave, what to do >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[Guest DEPORT]

:-) Yes, i also have a scheduled time to smoke our reseidents, but our administrator scheduled all head departments a time. We have a smoking facility, which i do not care for, because it is also in the dining room. Smoke should not be where you eat. It can be frustrating! I'am now in the process of implementing an activity room which our residents have never had! Any suggestions welcome. :pint:

[Braydon 0]

I have a resident that asks me to take her outside everyday to smoke. I love doing it, she's a great woman. But everytime she offers me one. Since I don't want to be rude and I also smoke, I usually do. Does anyone see a problem with this? Crossing any boundries?

[bsorrells 0]

I have a resident that asks me to take her outside everyday to smoke. I love doing it, she's a great woman. But everytime she offers me one. Since I don't want to be rude and I also smoke, I usually do. Does anyone see a problem with this? Crossing any boundries?

hey I am a smoker too and if I have to be the one giving these Residents there smoke break , then I will also be smoking with them 8-)

[heavenstar 0]

Braydon,

 

I don't see any problem with it-- except that you might be seen as a moocher-- so my suggestion is that you offer her a cig once in a while too! Or else start saying, Oh I have mine, but thanks! Great bonding time too!

[LaineyBeth 0]

At my facility staff are not allowed to take anything from residents. That includes candy and in this case would include cigarettes. (Its really hard to say no to a peppermint.) Can you imagine how many more cigarettes that resident will have to buy to keep you supplied too? Plus at some point she may think if she doesn't offer you one you won't take her outside. Even though that is in no way the case.

 

I would just be wary of taking anything from residents. They will expect certain favors, or other residents might start offering you thinks trying to get special treatment. Just be careful!

 

--LB

[Braydon 0]

I guess I did state my case wrong earlier. She does offer me them, but most times I have my own. I rarely take them from her, only if she insists..... and yes it is amazing bonding time.... she thouroughly enjoys it.

[Guest Lawrence]

Hey, I work in a 197 bed nursing home for the mentally ill and my department is responsible for all smokers....Generally, each resident gets 10 cigs a day that they can pick up at 9 or 1(although a few minutes each way doesn't matter to me.) The only way that they are limited is that if they have a smoking violation (smoking in room, selling cigarettes, buying cigarettes) then they go in a supervised smoking box and can smoke only at 6 specific times a day. my staff is responsible for the 10 AM time but the CNA's do all others. We do mail-order cigarettes out of trust funds, (much cheaper) and this works out well as I usually don't have to go buy too many cigarettes. Shouldn't be your responsibility to go buy them one carton at a time for each res who smokes.....

[CJackson 0]

We also have smoke break times at our facility. It used to be that I would have to take them. Wich was no problem, since i smoke. However, it does interfere with activities. I finally told my administrator that others are going to have to help with this responsibility. Since we do have many staff members that smoke. So now it is a policy. If you are a smoker and about to take a smoke break at the same time as the residents break is scheduled you had better ask for their cigarettes. This accomplished 2 things. One it really cut down on the number of smoke breaks that staff were taking. Two, someone who is really dying for a smoke, has no problem taking the residents. Now I dont have to take them. Unless of course i'm taking a break myself! Its great, and really frees up a lot of time. Talk with your administrator. Something like this should be in every facility. It should not be put on non smokers though. Unless they dont mind taking them.

[Guest tigger]

Hello, I work in no smoking facility for the residents but we do get smokers every now and then. They have to be able to get outside the back dining room door to smoke by themselves, and they have to be able to get back in by themselves. We did have a problem because residents would come out where the staff goes to smoke because it was easier for them. But staff would start talking about other residents and how bad or good there day was in front of them, that became a HIPPA thing. We do say on admission no smoking but things happen. 8-)

[Pennie 26]

Hi HeavenStar,

Reading your post about the res. giving you cigs. brings to mind something I did years ago.

There was this female res. who was just the greatest lady. She was in charge of her own funds, her own gaurdian etc. She also had her own banking acc't with checks. So when she cam eto me ask me to cash a check for her and bring the money back to her when I came back to work, I was leary of doing this. So i told I needed to check on this. I spoke with SS, DON and Admin. It was agreeded that since she was responsbile for herself and if I didn't have a problem with this then it was OK. It was not a big deal for me so I did it. Of course I made notes about this in her chart. The checks where made out in my name so that I could cash them at my bank. I did this for several months for her. Low and behold one of relatives came for a visit and the res. mentioned how she was able to get cash. All of her realtives lived out of tow/state and rarley came to see her. This relative started in on how I was getting the res. to write me checks and I was keeping some or all of the money. To make a long story short since everyone knew of this arrangement I had with her, my notes and the res. vouching this was her doings it turned out to be deadend for this relative. I did however stop cashing the cheks for her. It made me relaize how this must look to the family members and just was not a good place have gotten myself in. So here is a lesson that we can all learn from :-? P

[kevinm 2]

Hi Guys!

Well I know that this is not actually an Activity Dept problem, but I have been given the task of coming up with a smoking policy for our facility.

It was an issue with our recent State visit. Residents did not have a smoking assesment in their chart, not care planned about it.

Assessments have been completed, done by nursing. There are some residents deemed unsafe to smoke independently. (we knew that) So now the nursing assistants will be responsible to be on the smoking porch with those particular residents who require supervision.

Everyone is getting hit with this tag btw... If a resident is not A&O x 3... and smokes, they need to be supervised.

ANYWAY........If your facility has a smoking policy, could you please pass it on to me? I need some examples to go by in creating our own.

We are leaning toward particular times throughout the day, 30min every 2 hours.

Also NOBODY has their own ciggs or lighters. (except those deemed responsible and safe) Aides will have everyones ciggs locked in a box, only to open during our "Marlboro Moments".

 

If you can, either post it here, e-mail me at kevinm@activitydirector.com, or e-mail me for my fax number..

We have only two weeks left before State returns, this has to be created, approved, and put in place before next week is out..

Thank you for any help you can give me

 

Kevin

Edited August 12, 2006 by kevinm

[Pennie 26]

Hi Kevin,

I don't have a policy in front of me but some of the things that were done at smoking facilities that I have worked at or been in had these things in place. Maybe you can use them.

Residents where only allowed to smoke 2 cigs at each smoke break rather than 30 mins. Residents may try to smoke to many cigs in 30 mins & end up making their selves sick. It was always a fight on who had to deal with them while they smoked. CNA's didn't smoke, they had to much to do etc. (Every dept. had an excuse, including activities) So it ended up that every dept. had to a day assigned to them it was up to the dept. head to assign staff members to cover that day. Activities used their day to make an activity out of this, it seemed that smokers didn't come to activities because they were so concerned about missing smoking time & would not attend act. Another way that we covered our smokers was to get a resident that was alert responsible etc. & get them to became a volunteer. He would get the cigs & lighter from nursing & take the smokers out at a certain time daily. Since he was going to be there anyway & this was a burden off of staff for that time slot. Be sure that you have signs made up of where they smoke & the smoking times & place them at every nurse station and any other places needed.

State eventually got us for the res. that carried lighters on them (seems like there was something about having a lighter in the facility), one was caught smoking in their room, caught giving other res. cigs, doing nothing but smoking etc. Of course this was a LTC facility. Anyway just some FYI's that may be useful. After you write it how about posting it here or emailing it to me & I'll post here for everyone Thanks Pennie

 

PS Great for you on doing this. I loved this "Well I know that this is not actually an Activity Dept problem". It really bothers me when I hear people say but it's not my job! Teamwork is always best. You sound like my kind of people

8-)

[Guest Guest]

Ya' know, after being an AD, I hope that my daughters never desert me!

[bigchris 1]

Kevin,

 

Some facilities that I have visited have a bonafide smke break. The problem here is 3 fold 1) It is counted as an actual activity for the residents 2) It enables residents to smoke, rather than deter 3) It takes staff from the majority of the residents to cater to the few.

 

My facility went smoke free, which means that the facility has no obligation to provide for NEW residents who come in and want to smoke. We have had some issues with burning and we have purchased aprons for them, but in the majority we do not have a problem. There are many resources to pull from and this was the direction that we decided to go, you may choose differently.

 

 

BC

[Guest Guest_KateAA]

What is interesting about the facilites doing a smoking policy is that extra step of actually offering a smoking cessation program for staff and residents. I know that we all struggle with this issue, but I haveyet to find a facility that encourages alternatives. Especially when staff smokes within eye shot of the residents most of the time. Just a thought about developing your policy