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. 

Hello, I'm going through probation with CA BRN right now. Were you required to take several nursing education courses as part of probation? The issue I am having is, I cannot find any courses related to, "patient safety related to nursing management of controlled substances utilizing automated systems." By automated systems I think they mean like pyxis, omnicell, etc. Have you or anyone on this board come across courses like this? I need 9 hours of courses on this topic. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Specializes in Mental health, Critical Care, Nurse Educator du.

What is the difference between diversion and probation?

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Specializes in Home Health/Hospice, Public Health, Case Mgmt.
On 12/20/2021 at 8:22 PM, meena123 said:

Hi I need some advice I’m stuck whether or not I should do this program as well. I am a new member so I can’t send a private message yet. Can someone email me? My email is [email protected]

Did anyone ever email you?

On 2/23/2022 at 9:29 PM, djpioneer said:

Hello, I'm going through probation with CA BRN right now. Were you required to take several nursing education courses as part of probation? The issue I am having is, I cannot find any courses related to, "patient safety related to nursing management of controlled substances utilizing automated systems." By automated systems I think they mean like pyxis, omnicell, etc. Have you or anyone on this board come across courses like this? I need 9 hours of courses on this topic. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I would ask in your NSG. 

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Specializes in Home Health/Hospice, Public Health, Case Mgmt.
3 hours ago, Quickstepper said:

What is the difference between diversion and probation?

They are very similar. Diversion is more recovery based and requires more intense recovery stuff..... like more AA meetings, meeting with leadership from the program routinely, more likely to have blood/ hair tests, etc. It keeps your license clean as well. It is minimum 3 years. You won't be able to work during the first 6 months-1 year or so. Probation is less recovery based (1 AA/week), stays attached to your license forever, and can be shortened from 3 years to 2ish if you're compliant (you can get early termination granted). Both require weekly nurse support groups and drug testing (which we are responsible for paying for both the support group and tests). Those are the main things. 

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Specializes in Psychiatric RN.
On 2/23/2022 at 9:29 PM, djpioneer said:

Hello, I'm going through probation with CA BRN right now. Were you required to take several nursing education courses as part of probation? The issue I am having is, I cannot find any courses related to, "patient safety related to nursing management of controlled substances utilizing automated systems." By automated systems I think they mean like pyxis, omnicell, etc. Have you or anyone on this board come across courses like this? I need 9 hours of courses on this topic. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

It says as part of my stipulation agreement that I have to take CEUs but it doesn't state exactly what specific topics I need to take. I'll talk to my probation monitor about it (whenever they get back to me.)

I have a subscription of CEUs at nurse.com - maybe you'll have some luck there?

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Hi not sure if anyone will see this, but if so did everyone wait for the investigation to be completed before entering the diversion program? I mad a huge mistake at work. I admitted it. I also just got off subnoxone less than a month ago, should I enter the program voluntarily or wait for the board hearing/investigation to be done and take drug tests on my own. As I said it was a one time mistake I took the subnoxone after because I felt like I needed something to help me, I did online therapy as well while doing that. I'm not sure it would matter to the boards but just curious what others think thank you ? I'm here in CA as well I'm a lvn. 

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Lemme email you gimmie your email

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But to answer your questions briefly: 

1. if you JUST made the mistake, you will hear from the diversion program (Maximus) in about 6 weeks. If you're not fired from your job and have the opportunity to make some $ in the meantime I would probably do that. But if you diverted narcotics at work and admitted to it then you essentially have no other choice but to join the program to save your license/future. Unfortunately the therapy etc you've done on your own doesn't mean much to the BRN and you'll have to participate in the boards diversion program to avoid discipline. I can offer more details via email. Good luck. If it makes you feel better it sucks and is scary at first but everything is totally doable and livable with time. 

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Helen jaure said:

Hi not sure if anyone will see this, but if so did everyone wait for the investigation to be completed before entering the diversion program? I mad a huge mistake at work. I admitted it. I also just got off subnoxone less than a month ago, should I enter the program voluntarily or wait for the board hearing/investigation to be done and take drug tests on my own. As I said it was a one time mistake I took the subnoxone after because I felt like I needed something to help me, I did online therapy as well while doing that. I'm not sure it would matter to the boards but just curious what others think thank you ? I'm here in CA as well I'm a lvn. 

No, I did not wait until the investigation was over before entering my monitoring program.  Why?  Because I wanted the clock started.  It's a 5 year monitoring program.  The state is going to want you to do 5 years of being monitored (daily check in/random drug testing) and nurses are just plain ignorant, completely ignorant for "waiting until the investigation is over" before entering the monitoring program.  Often 1 year to 18 months has passed before the Board makes a decision.  You could have already had 1.5 of the 5 years DONE before the Board made a decision, but what do ignorant nurses do?  They wait-stress themselves out/worry themselves sick for the 12 to 18 months time it is taking for the Board to finish the investigation and make a decision, then when the decision is made, the Nurse just got to add another 5 years of stress into the mix on top of the 18 month waiting period.  Ignorance.

Monitoring program/diversion program.  If the Board decides you don't need monitoring 1 year after you have already quickly enrolled into the diversion/monitoring program, then great, you just leave the diversion/monitoring program when the Board decided you don't need it.  The thing is, over 97% of diversion cases brought to the Board will end up requiring monitoring for the nurse for 5 years.  Get on the clock.  Get the clock started.  Absolutely DO NOT WAIT to enter into diversion/monitoring.  Get into it quickly because you are getting the clock started on this nightmare coming to an end quicker.  

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Thank you both, my email is [email protected]

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solarex said:

No, I did not wait until the investigation was over before entering my monitoring program.  Why?  Because I wanted the clock started.  It's a 5 year monitoring program.  The state is going to want you to do 5 years of being monitored (daily check in/random drug testing) and nurses are just plain ignorant, completely ignorant for "waiting until the investigation is over" before entering the monitoring program.  Often 1 year to 18 months has passed before the Board makes a decision.  You could have already had 1.5 of the 5 years DONE before the Board made a decision, but what do ignorant nurses do?  They wait-stress themselves out/worry themselves sick for the 12 to 18 months time it is taking for the Board to finish the investigation and make a decision, then when the decision is made, the Nurse just got to add another 5 years of stress into the mix on top of the 18 month waiting period.  Ignorance.

Monitoring program/diversion program.  If the Board decides you don't need monitoring 1 year after you have already quickly enrolled into the diversion/monitoring program, then great, you just leave the diversion/monitoring program when the Board decided you don't need it.  The thing is, over 97% of diversion cases brought to the Board will end up requiring monitoring for the nurse for 5 years.  Get on the clock.  Get the clock started.  Absolutely DO NOT WAIT to enter into diversion/monitoring.  Get into it quickly because you are getting the clock started on this nightmare coming to an end quicker.  

I understand the "getting the clock started" frame of thinking and I do sometimes wish I could go back in time and get started in the program immediately. However, I was a travel nurse and waiting it out allowed me to save an insane amount of money and made starting the diversion process far less stressful because I wasn't worried about $. I also had time to learn about the program and it just made everything less scary for me. I agree with the stress but once you wrap your mind around the consequences of your actions I personally found it to be less daunting. That's just me tho and the entire thing is just very challenging to go through 

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That's slightly my mindset, I'm in the middle I want to wait it out, to save up whatever I can as long as I can as you said, but also so that I can better understand the program going in and knowing what I have to do. I know it's going to be a long process and recovery, that I'm okay with just nervous of course. Thank you I really appreciate your responses 

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