Are you currently wondering if nurses get drug tested? If you are, you have come to the right place.
As a nurse, you absolutely don’t want drugs to affect your ability to be able to act quickly and do your job.
After all, nurses are responsible for other people’s lives, regardless of whether that be responding to an emergency in the ER or providing bedside care.
So, regardless of whether you have plans of becoming a nurse and want to make sure that you know the ins and outs of what to expect, or you’re simply interested in learning more about the requirements of being a nurse – just keep on reading to learn more about whether or not nurses get drug tested.
So, whenever you’re ready, just keep on reading!
Do Nurses Get Drug Tested? The Basics To Keep In Mind
Before we get any further into this article, we are first going to outline some of the basics that you will need to keep in mind as a nurse:
- If you are a nurse, it is important to not take drugs because they might impair your ability to be able to make critical decisions. As well as this, it might also impair your ability to make a decision – especially when working in a pressurized environment such as a hospital. That being said, healthcare facilities will want to be sure that you are not taking drugs to make sure that you will be able to safely care for patients (see also ‘What Is Basic Care And Comfort In Nursing?‘).
- When working as a nurse, you will be working around strong, powerful drugs that can potentially have the potential to become addictive when abused. With that being said, healthcare facilities will also want to make sure that you are going to be the right candidate for nursing for them, which means ensuring that you are not going to be tempted to use them yourself at any point.
All that being said – do nurses get drug tested? While policies for drug testing will no doubt vary from healthcare facility to healthcare facility – to cut a long story short, it is highly common for nurses to regularly get drug tested.
To help you better understand the instances in which drug testing is most common as a nurse (see also ‘Can You Be A Nurse With A Felony?‘), we are going to be providing you with examples in the following sections.
Drug Testing In Nursing School
Given the fact that you are going into a healthcare profession – it is only to be expected that things such as drug tests will begin to take place long before you enter the world of work.
In fact, it is very common for nursing schools and other educational institutions to carry out regular drug tests to ensure that you are a good candidate for nursing.
Along with this, when training to become a nurse you will often be required to carry out placements at various healthcare facilities throughout the duration of your time studying to become a nurse.
These placements will expose you to drugs and other medical substances, so it is common to be randomly tested to ensure that you aren’t taking them.
Drug Testing In Hiring Process
After you have successfully completed your nursing program and you are ready to begin looking for work – you should also expect to be drug tested during the hiring process.
This is common practice for healthcare facilities throughout the country, and helps to ensure that you will be a good candidate for their workplace.
During the vetting process, you will likely be asked to provide a urine sample before a formal offer is given to you. Again, this is totally normal, so don’t worry if you are asked.
Random Drug Testing While Practicing As A Nurse
After you have entered the world of work and you have started your career as a nurse – you should also expect to be randomly drug tested throughout the working year at random periods.
Oftentimes, healthcare facilities will typically select a random group of employees (usually done via the computer to ensure fairness) and drug test them just to ensure that no one is doing something that they shouldn’t be.
Along with this, a random drug test might also be required if there is warranted suspicion of a certain employee.
For example, let’s say you happened to be talking about taking drugs with a friend and a person you work with overheard it – this would then prompt senior management to require you to take an unexpected drug test.
Remember, in order to be the best nurse you can be, it is important to make sure that you aren’t taking any drugs that could affect your ability to do your job, and that goes for both your personal and professional lives.
The Bottom Line
And there we have it. All in all, nurses, just like doctors, are tasked with the important responsibility of having another person’s life in their hands.
So, as a healthcare professional it is absolutely vital that drugs are never taken or abused in both personal and professional life.
Now that you have taken the time to read through our guide above, we hope that we have been able to explain why it is important for nurses to be drug tested, as well as the most common situations that you can expect to get drug tested yourself if you are already a nurse or you are thinking of potentially becoming one.
Remember, it is part of many healthcare facilities policies to carry out routine drug tests on all of their staff (especially given the fact that these facilities often expose their employees to potentially addictive drugs) so it is totally normal to be asked to be tested, and will help to ensure your wellbeing, as well as the wellbeing of your patients.
Thank you for taking the time to read this guide. We hope that you have found it helpful.