Careers for Nurses who Leave Monitoring

[Steven Thompson]

I'm writing this to help those nurses who are new to monitoring or fairly new to a monitoring program and are thinking about removing themselves from monitoring and forgoing their licenses.  I write this because having worked with many nurses over the years who have withdrawn from monitoring, the majority have withdrawn AFTER having been in the program for 2 years already or more. The overwhelming majority of these nurses have told me they wish they would have went back to school or received training in a new career field as soon as they entered monitoring so the transition to leave nursing would have been much easier and they feel like those 2 years in their monitoring program was wasted time.

Before I get into career fields, let me be clear what happens when a nurse withdraws from monitoring. They either surrender their license or the license is revoked. Within 30 days of that happening, the State Board Reports this to the National Practitioner Data Bank and the Stste Medicaid Program. The nurse is then given a minimum 5 year disbar from that states Medicaid program, then Medicaid reports this to the Federal Government OIG office and the nurse is placed on a minimum 5 year Federal OIG disbarred list. What does the above mean? It means the nurse can't work basically in ANY Healthcare setting in ANY part of the country in ANY job. Even as a janitor in a hosoital. If the Healthcare setting has ANYTHING to do with Medicare or has one Medicare patient out of 1 million, then the nurse can not work there. Exceptions to the above rules are a Healthcare setting such as aesthetician where they don't participate in Medicare or Medicaid. These jobs are very very rare and always taken and their aren't many to start with. Dialysis centers? Nope, they participate in Medicaid and Medicare. 

Based on the above if removing yourself from monitoring/surrendered or revoked license, the overwhelming odds are....you are done not just with nursing, but Healthcare of ANY kind. Radiology Tech? Nope. Paramedic? Nope. Substance abuse counselor? Nope. These will generally all be jobs that participate in Medicare in some way or another, so you can't do them, so think of careers OUTSIDE of the medical field. 

Options

1. Pharmaceutical or Medical Equipment sales. You are paid by the company, not the hospital so you can do this. Pick an area that you use to work in such as OB or OR. Specialize in a sales area that sales an OB or OR/surgical product. Don't wait, start applying and get your feet in the water early on to see if you land a job, and if monitoring is for you, stay with monitoring but if you are not doing well/stressed out with monitoring, you have an option.

2. Data Analytics/IT. With 12 months of training, you can make 70-90 K per year and these jobs do not care if you smoke weed. Here's the key though, don't wait for 2 or 3 years after you are in monitoring only to surrender/withdrawal monitoring/license then enter panic mode as to "what am I going to do." If you are 2 are 3 years into monitoring and things are good and you are going to continue on with your nursing career, then guess what, you have another valuable skill set that could greatly help you in nursing.

3. School teacher. If you are a BSN, you can quickly become a school teacher via a (any Bachelors degree) transition program and have 3 years to get your teachers certification After you are already teaching. It's a very easy transition.

4. Truck Driver. This could be more appealing to male nurses but many females also. Tanker truck drivers make 100k per year. The hottest thing in driving now is team drivers. A husband and wife or spouse and spouse or 2 partners go to trucking school together (4 weeks long) and you drive together as a team after school. As a team, you will make 100K EACH even in the first year. After 2 years of driving together, expect 120 to 125K for each of you (250K per couple). Lots of hours over the road together and sleeping in semi truck sleepers, but your taking in 200K plus per year and you are seeing the country.

5. Aesthetician. This takes some training and many programs are 2 years, but you make good money and again, if you decide to stick with nursing, you have another skillset that can add to your nursing skills.

6. Attorney. Want to stick it to the BON years down the road? File suit yourself as your own attorney. Did you know that Law school requires only a Bachelors Degree of ANY kind plus the LSAT admissions test and is only 36 months long and you have your jurisdoctorate and you are an attorney when passing the bar upon graduation. Law schools admit BSN nurses all of the time and again, it's only 36 months. Expensive? Heck yes

7. Paralegal. Generally a 2 year program but you can also get a Bachelors in this, but you can have an associates in Paralegal studies in only 15 months if you are already a 2 year RN. Paralegals are to lawyers as nurses are to doctors. Starting pay about 50K to 60K, but in 5 years, easily 100K, and nice hours also.

My point? I encourage any nurse who is just entered monitoring who has any doubt to strongly consider training/education in another field not just as a backdrop in case 2 or 3 years go by and the monitoring program goes to crap so you are prepared to easily walk away, but from a recovery standpoint. If you have an Substsnce Abuse Disorder, you need a new passion, a new drug, and entering a new and engaging educational area can dramatically occupy your time and newly adjusted time away from drugs and alcohol.

I do understand that the above is easier said than done due to financial constraints when a nurse is now in monitoring, lawyer fees/ possible loss of employment for a year or more, but if you have the financial ability to do so, retraining/educating yourself in a new field is an incredible option EARLY on, and starting as soon as you are in trouble is better than waiting.

Hope this helps.

[Healer555]

Attorneys have their own monitoring program. They'd likely find out or ask questions that would land you back with a monitoring agreement. Healthcare, lawyers pilots all have their own monitoring programs. 

[Steven Thompson]

Healer555 said:

Attorneys have their own monitoring program. They'd likely find out or ask questions that would land you back with a monitoring agreement. Healthcare, lawyers pilots all have their own monitoring programs. 

Pre law entry Bar Agreement. The Bar for each state allows students who have not entered law school to do an inquiry PRIOR to entering law school to determine if there will be any problems with the Bar.  Those questions would be answered PRIOR to entering law school and this again shows the difference in Professionalism in State Bars and Boards of Nursing. Imagine trying to get an answer from a State BON regarding what might be required or the outcome prior to even entering nursing school. The answer would be like like pulling  teeth because the BON has NO answer. There is no process for this with BONs. Stata Bars (law) already have a process in place to answer and address concerns for criminal or drug backgrounds for people prior to ever entering law school.

[Healer555]

Steven Thompson said:

Pre law entry Bar Agreement. The Bar for each state allows students who have not entered law school to do an inquiry PRIOR to entering law school to determine if there will be any problems with the Bar.  Those questions would be answered PRIOR to entering law school and this again shows the difference in Professionalism in State Bars and Boards of Nursing. Imagine trying to get an answer from a State BON regarding what might be required or the outcome prior to even entering nursing school. The answer would be like like pulling  teeth because the BON has NO answer. There is no process for this with BONs. Stata Bars (law) already have a process in place to answer and address concerns for criminal or drug backgrounds for people prior to ever entering law school.

And also when applying for the bar exam.  One guy was on suboxone and they wanted him to do a monitoring agreement. He represented himself and escaped it. Personally I'd stay away from law school for this reason 

[dancinginthedark]

My concern is that employers and schools will do background checks, and find the suspension order. So, even if I quit and want to do something else, any school or job that does background check will find that I was in a monitoring program. 

The board has started issuing less detailed suspension orders. Before, they would include drug tests, psych evals, private correspondence. But it still says they failed to comply with monitoring. 

[Steven Thompson]

There's always a chance of a new career field employer finding out about your background. You might be surprised how many Non Nursing Fields don't care or doesn't make it a show stopper to hire you and this includes the public school system, IT field and trucking. Keep in mind, there are many lawyers across the country who have felony histories 

[Healer555]

Steven Thompson said:

There's always a chance of a new career field employer finding out about your background. You might be surprised how many Non Nursing Fields don't care or doesn't make it a show stopper to hire you and this includes the public school system, IT field and trucking. Keep in mind, there are many lawyers across the country who have felony histories 

It'd be risky to try another career though.  Who knows who will or won't care? I wish I'd been brave enough to find out. Teachers definitely don't earn enough for me to live on

 

[Steven Thompson]

There's a 100 percent certainty that there is risk with a new career, but that risk in my opinion outweighs the risk of not pursuing one, if the nursing career has ended. Several felons (forget about substance abuse) but felons work in IT fields across the country and do well. IT literally just wants qualifications and many simply don't drug test. Many lawyers are guys and gals who served time and were so ticked off with the system that this is why they went into law. There are some programs out there that actually have transition programs for people out of prison who have a Bachelors Degree and they become teachers. Truck Driving? Zero concerns about a drug history as long as that history occurred before you had a CDL/truck driving license.

I have two Aftercare participants that are husband and wife. The husband had his RN license suspended and he was in monitoring for 6 months and was tired of it and all the drama with the Board. His wife was a radiology Tech. Him and his wife went to trucking school and they had jobs lined up with Schneider before finishing truck driving/CDL school. They work as a team/both of them drive/one drives while one sleeps and they are on the road 5 days a week and get to see the country. They each made 100K their first year. At the 3 year mark, they had enough money saved to buy their own tractor/trailer and basically went into business for themselves where they don't work for a company. After all of their truck expenses, fuel and stuff on the road, they each make 225K per year and love it. 

[Healer555]

Steven Thompson said:

There's a 100 percent certainty that there is risk with a new career, but that risk in my opinion outweighs the risk of not pursuing one, if the nursing career has ended. Several felons (forget about substance abuse) but felons work in IT fields across the country and do well. IT literally just wants qualifications and many simply don't drug test. Many lawyers are guys and gals who served time and were so ticked off with the system that this is why they went into law. There are some programs out there that actually have transition programs for people out of prison who have a Bachelors Degree and they become teachers. Truck Driving? Zero concerns about a drug history as long as that history occurred before you had a CDL/truck driving license.

I have two Aftercare participants that are husband and wife. The husband had his RN license suspended and he was in monitoring for 6 months and was tired of it and all the drama with the Board. His wife was a radiology Tech. Him and his wife went to trucking school and they had jobs lined up with Schneider before finishing truck driving/CDL school. They work as a team/both of them drive/one drives while one sleeps and they are on the road 5 days a week and get to see the country. They each made 100K their first year. At the 3 year mark, they had enough money saved to buy their own tractor/trailer and basically went into business for themselves where they don't work for a company. After all of their truck expenses, fuel and stuff on the road, they each make 225K per year and love it. 

I'd definitely pursue something else if I had no other choice but I'll finish the monitoring agreement because I wouldn't want to risk it is what I meant.  I'm surprised a truck driver makes that much. Do solo drivers make as much? Are they home every night or on the road away from home all week? I'm guessing the point of married drivers is so they can drive all night and day switching off. 

I feel like we are treated worse than felons.

[Steven Thompson]

Healer555 said:

I'd definitely pursue something else if I had no other choice but I'll finish the monitoring agreement because I wouldn't want to risk it is what I meant.  I'm surprised a truck driver makes that much. Do solo drivers make as much? Are they home every night or on the road away from home all week? I'm guessing the point of married drivers is so they can drive all night and day switching off. 

Solo drivers make nowhere near as much unless they are an owner (they own their own truck) then if you own your truck 200K easily. If you work for a company and are willing to drive as a team, especially two spouses, if you are willing to go (over the road) across the country you can make 100K each if you hustle. Moat drivers want to drive Solo so that means the truck stop for 13 hours out of 24 hours and isn't moving because the driver is sleeping and truckers are limited by Federal Law on hours per day driving. With a team, the truck is moving 20 hours out of 24 hours and the company makes more money/higher pay for a team.

[Rose795]

I want to add that any career that requires licensing will always ask "have you ever had a professional license revoked or suspended" and you must answer truthfully. I really wanted to switch to elementary education rather than go through 5 years of monitoring, but there is no way a public school system who deals with children and parents will be willing to hire a nurse who failed to complete a substance abuse program. The parents can even look you up in the board of nursing and see exactly what you did. There is definitely a liability and possible backlash for the school if they hire  a nurse with a revoked license. 

IT, construction, business, marketing, biology, chemistry, and accounting are much more realistic fields to switch to as they do not require professional licensing and they don't work with vulnerable populations (e.g. children)

All in all I make this comment to emphasize how important it is to throughly look at the requirements and be realistic about what kind of jobs you can get if you decide to give up your nursing career, it's a huge decision with financial consequences that can impact the rest of your life. In the grand scheme of things five years is not that long, my first year of monitoring flew by. The worst part was the two months of inpatient rehab I had to do before they would let me start my contract, the rest is honestly not that bad especially once you find a job with an understanding manager.