California Nurses

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I would love to connect with some fellow nurses in probation or diversion. I am in diversion and live in the Bay Area. 

Specializes in Home Health/Hospice, Public Health, Case Mgmt.
16 minutes ago, Hnh1993 said:

Also, if you know anyone currently in the program please try to link me to them if they’re open to it. I have a lot of questions 

I know someone who went through Diversion and successfully completed it. He did a non-Nursing job while he wasn't allowed to work as a nurse. I will ask him if he minds me providing his contact info. 

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That would be so helpful! Thank you so much. To confirm, this was in CA correct? 

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Specializes in Home Health/Hospice, Public Health, Case Mgmt.

Yep. CA.

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Based on what I’ve read, you’re spot on with the “one size fits all” thing. My issue is a real mistake so I guess I get it…..but yours makes no sense to me. This stuff makes me want to leave nursing all together honestly. Just worked so hard for it and as a traveler it yields great income. I guess I’ll have to shelve that for now until I sort this out. Thank you for replying and I hope the baby is great 

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Specializes in Home Health/Hospice, Public Health, Case Mgmt.
26 minutes ago, Hnh1993 said:

Based on what I’ve read, you’re spot on with the “one size fits all” thing. My issue is a real mistake so I guess I get it…..but yours makes no sense to me. This stuff makes me want to leave nursing all together honestly. Just worked so hard for it and as a traveler it yields great income. I guess I’ll have to shelve that for now until I sort this out. Thank you for replying and I hope the baby is great 

Yep. Mine was a completely personal issue. Had nothing to do with nursing. I would continue with what you're doing (travel nursing) until you find out more info. Once you figure out what your options are, you can go from there. If you are able to and choose Diversion, you should probably just continue travel nursing up until you begin Diversion. However, if you get Probation, I highly recommend searching for a job prior to beginning Probation. I say this because I know of nurses that were able to keep their jobs at places like Sutter and John Muir once they began Probation because they were already working there and were established. Those places are not easy to get newly hired at though, once you're already on Probation. Caveat to that is right now, with the shortage of/firing of nurses, it is definitely easier to get hired at those types of places, so you may not have much trouble. Who knows, though. 

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I wouldn’t contact the BRN, wait till they send you a letter.  It doesn’t really work in your favor whether you contact them first or not. This buys you more time to figure things out, but do what you think is best, of course.  Even if you start out as “self-referred” it will switch to “board referred” once they get the complaint anyway.  I actually didn’t get the letter offering me diversion and 7 months after my complaint I got a letter that I was under investigation by the DCA (probation usually at that point). I contacted the diversion program and still was able to get in. But again, diversion won’t accept people who do not have an addiction problem (or think they may have one anyway). 
 

Best thing to do: go on the BRN website and search the list of nurse support groups.  contact a couple nearby (they are probably all on Zoom though)  get the info and attend a meeting or two.  You will have a bunch of people in probation and diversion plus the group leader to ask questions of.  You don’t have to be enrolled yet in any program to attend any groups  

 

 

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Specializes in Home Health/Hospice, Public Health, Case Mgmt.
1 hour ago, jnks said:

I wouldn’t contact the BRN, wait till they send you a letter.  It doesn’t really work in your favor whether you contact them first or not. This buys you more time to figure things out, but do what you think is best, of course.  Even if you start out as “self-referred” it will switch to “board referred” once they get the complaint anyway.  I actually didn’t get the letter offering me diversion and 7 months after my complaint I got a letter that I was under investigation by the DCA (probation usually at that point). I contacted the diversion program and still was able to get in. But again, diversion won’t accept people who do not have an addiction problem (or think they may have one anyway). 
 

Best thing to do: go on the BRN website and search the list of nurse support groups.  contact a couple nearby (they are probably all on Zoom though)  get the info and attend a meeting or two.  You will have a bunch of people in probation and diversion plus the group leader to ask questions of.  You don’t have to be enrolled yet in any program to attend any groups  

 

 

I've heard from my lawyer that it is best to be forthcoming. A colleague of mine is using the same lawyer and they are contacting the BRN (after receipt of Diversion offer). But you are correct in that it likely won't make a difference in the end. You never know, though. It could be a better outcome. As far as NSG goes, I think that's a good suggestion, but keep in mind that they do cost money to attend and are not always a combo of both probation and diversion. My NSG leader has the two groups separated. I've also gotten inaccurate info from people at NSG. Telling me things like home health is not allowed (it is and my job was approved), you can't work night shift (you absolutely can on Probation), you will get Maximum supervision when you start out with a job (I was given moderate right away and never had maximum), job has to be patient care (I just got approved for RN Case Mgmt Home Health). The NSG leader is great but the attendees do not always have accurate info. Just as an FYI. 

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Thank you for that? What do the “supervision” grades look like? Like if I started with maximum, how would that translate as far as limitations on my practice? 

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@jnksCan I get you to message me privately? Since you’re actively in the diversion program I have loads of questions. Thank you 

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Specializes in Home Health/Hospice, Public Health, Case Mgmt.
1 hour ago, Hnh1993 said:

Thank you for that? What do the “supervision” grades look like? Like if I started with maximum, how would that translate as far as limitations on my practice? 

Screenshot_20211010-155314_Drive.thumb.jpg.7c648bf2f5617abdf800c38af4d2a0bb.jpg

This is under condition #8 of Probation guidelines. You can find them online. 

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Who is responsible for grading the degree of supervision?

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I'm in a similar position as you. I made some charting mistakes that involved narcotics and falsy accused of diverting. I feel it was blown out of proportion and to know that I may have that mark on my license for some simple mistakes that didn't hurt anyone is disheartening. 

If you do diversion instead of probation, it doesn't stay on your record? What if you have already denied taking drugs?

It's nice to come across people going through the same thing but also so sad that this happens so much. It's like we cannot make mistakes. 

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