Trinity Valley Community College

Continuing & Workforce Education Department

Policy for Drug Screening

In order for clinical affiliates to comply with Joint Commission accreditation standards pertaining to due diligence and competency assessment of all individuals whose assignments bring them in contact with patients or employees, employee prescreening requirements such as criminal background checks and drug screens are extended to clinical students. All TVCC Continuing & Workforce Education medical students and employees who come in contact with patients, perform invasive procedures in a lab environment, and/or represent TVCC as a student or employee at a clinical or externship type medical facility must have a negative drug screen before participating in any of the afore mentioned activities.

1.  After enrollment in these TVCC Continuing & Workforce Education medical courses, a drug screen will be performed.

a.  Clinical training activities

b.  Invasive procedures in lab activities

c.  Any work related medical activity in the community, or a medical facility, where the student or employee is in contact with patients or workplace clients - including observations and/or visitations as part of training.

2.  The college will make arrangements for a company that follows National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) guidelines to come to the college campus for drug screening. At least one drug screening time will be scheduled for each appropriate course (class section). Upon instruction, the student will provide a photo ID (Texas driver’s license is preferred) and an unobserved collection of urine. The company will perform a Substance Abuse Panel 10 (“SAP 10”) with integrity checks for creatinine and pH levels. SAP test results that fall outside any of the acceptable ranges will be considered presumptive-positive tests and will automatically be sent for a separate confirmatory test by a gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS) method. If the results remain non-negative, the Continuing & Workforce Education Department will be notified. A Medical Review Officer (MRO) will call the student to determine if there is a valid prescription for the drug in question. There may be an extra charge for the MRO services. Please note that taking someone else’s prescription medication is illegal and will result in a positive drug screen. If a valid prescription exists, the test result is deemed to be “negative” and acceptable. If a specimen is not testable for any reason, the student may be required to provide an observed collection of urine.

3.  The student must complete drug screening at the scheduled time. If a student is absent when the drug screening is performed, he/she will be notified. The student must call the drug testing company to make arrangements to get tested at a designated location within 24 hours. This may result in an extra fee, depending on the location of the collection site. Failure to do so will be interpreted as a refusal for drug testing and the student will either need to drop the course or will fail the course.

4.  The cost of the initial drug screen is included in the student’s lab fee.

5.  All drug screen results will be submitted to the Continuing & Workforce Education Department’s designated coordinator or director. The department will keep confidential all information obtained from the drug screens. All drug screen results will be kept in a separate file until the students have graduated or have not been enrolled in a TVCC Continuing & Workforce Education medical course for 1 year or the faculty member is no longer employed at TVCC and the records will be destroyed.

6.  The drug screen will be honored by all TVCC clinical affiliates for the duration of the student’s participation in the course.

7.  A student or faculty with a positive drug screen will not be allowed to attend any clinical agency/rotation for the current semester. There will be no re-testing. The student will be required to withdraw from the clinical course or not allowed to participate in a course requiring invasive procedures.

8.  Some facilities may not allow students who use nicotine products at all to be in their facility. Students and faculty are expected to respond honestly when queried about use of nicotine. Should a collaborating facility not permit a student who is using nicotine to be in their facility then there is a possibility that the student may have to forfeit their opportunity to complete a clinical or externship experience, unless another accepting facility can be located for that student during that semester with time to complete the training assignment. It is possible that the student will not pass the course, should this happen.

9.  TVCC Continuing & Workforce Education Department may elect to conduct drug screening in any course at any time. Students are required to submit to these random drug tests. 20% of each class roster could be subject to testing. These will be randomly selected through a drawing process conducted by the department and the judicial officer. Students testing positive will be subject to the provisions of the Continuing & Workforce Education Department policy for drug screening.

10.  Students may be subject to further drug screen testing if required by a clinical facility or if the student is suspected of substance abuse at any time during their enrollment in medical courses. The TVCC Continuing & Workforce Education Policy for Drug Screening will be followed.

11.  Should drug screens be performed by a clinical/externship site partnering with the TVCC Continuing & Workforce Education Department, and a student or faculty member is found with a positive drug result, then the TVCC Continuing & Workforce Education Policy for Drug Screening will apply and be followed.

12.  Personal physician statements will not be accepted instead of the TVCC scheduled drug test.

Revised 9/29/2015