If the 1,515 violations of the tobacco ban at UK Hospital are an indication of what will happen when the initiative hits the main campus, then UK can bet on some trouble.
With the culture of our state and its regard to smoking, many individuals might assume it is OK to smoke in public places like UK hospital. The hospital becomes the backdrop to an ironic scene: people go to the hospital to seek medical treatment, while at the same continuing an addictive, unhealthy habit at the hospital.
Even though the majority of the violations came from hospital visitors and patients, employees have contributed to the problem, with one employee terminated for refusal to comply with the policy. It speaks greatly to the effectiveness of the policy as there is a clear defiance to the ban, when employees continue to receive reprimands for breaking the policy.
The main problem for UK Hospital’s enforcement is that there is nowhere to smoke. It is not as if the people who line up on South Limestone want to be out there smoking on the curb, yet there just isn’t any other alternative. With the medical campus tobacco free, off-campus and sidewalks have become the de facto designated smoking area.
Those who are working at the hospital or visiting a patient need to stay close to the hospital. But those individuals need for proximity provides South Limestone with the image of smokers lining the streets thus doing a number on the image of a “smoke-free†campus.
The tobacco ban seems to be a work in progress on the medical campus. The high number of violations probably don’t even begin to represent the real figure of unreported non-compliance.
Smoking cessation isn’t just a forced policy; there are ways to help quit, if an individual so desires. UK is offering services to help students, faculty and staff stop using tobacco. so those who want to quit have a resource to help kick the habit.
If UK’s goal is to provide a tobacco free campus for the health of Kentuckians, then the idea is right. However, when employees continue to receive reprimands for breaking the ban nearly a year after its implementation, it is clear some employees are reacting defiantly to the policy,
UK can use the hospital ban as a measuring stick for its own impending ban, proactively finding solutions to problems that have arisen on the medical center campus.
So far UK Hospital is having struggles getting the message across and enforcing the ban. The last thing campus needs is a similar problem.
I think what is being ignored. As a smoker. I know smoking it is bad, I know it kills. But I also feel that I have the right to partake if I so choose. And I feel that the attempt to ban smoking or tax the hell out of it is all part of a greater attempt to control the masses…all the while being fed things that are far worse than any chemical wrapped in slow burning paper.
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