Co-worker stole my ID

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did you ever use someone elses idenity to steel narcotics form an acudose machine? How did it make you feel when you had to work with that nurse again that you stole her idenity from?

Specializes in ER, TRAUMA, MED-SURG.
This is all so easy to deal with - without have to take people's licenses away, forever and ever, amen.

First, random drug tests: roll 3 ten sided dice each month. Whatever numbers come up, if the last digit of your social is one of them: go pee in a bottle. If that's too much a violation of your personal liberty, then being a nurse is too much of a violation: find a different profession. With rights come responsibilities. The right to handle narcs must be matched with the responsibility to prove being clean.

2nd: it's an easy proposition to develop a standard deviation model to monitor controlled access machines. Within a week of diverting, the spike in drug withdrawals would register well out of the bell curve and could be fully investigated. It could be monitored from 2 angles: a nurse being initially outside the bell curve upon hire with narc withdrawals, and sudden changes to a nurse's normal position on the bell curve. (the second one would have immediately accounted for someone using your ID to take drugs - your monitored position on the bell curve would register outside of normal range usage and trigger a flag). Such technology is simply a matter of minor software adjustments.

3rd: Place a video camera at all controlled access stations. Make it common knowledge that all transactions will be video-taped. Shoot, I already assume that to be the case, anyway. I am always careful not to pick my nose near the machine.

All of these solutions are easy. But, as Tazzi says, there are many more nurses currently or formerly impaired out there than most people realize. And adminstration. . . well, they just don't want to know. That's obvious. If they wanted to know: the information is quite easily available to them.

And you have to think that it's just plain scary that such a concept is so commonplace, that administration thinks it's better to let the issue lay than to have to actually deal with it.

~faith,

Timothy.

Exactly, Timothy! We can still be productive, caring, dedicated RECOVERING nurses without being permanently disbarred, so to speak. And in the city where I work, all hospitals have random UDS, I think pulled by S.S. numbers, or something similar. and you are really shocked when someone gets called for a random uds, then never return to the floor. And in most facilities, including the ER where I usually work, has a video monitoring.

To Tazzi - thank you, darlin!!! You are my hero!!;)

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Specializes in L&D, M/B.

Nurses in recovery can be and are great nurses. I have been in recovery for 6 years now. I never stole drugs from work, but given more time in active addiction I am sure it would have come to that. I thank God that I had the chance to get treatment and now have a great life in recovery.

I work on a very busy floor and most of the nurses I work with know I am in recovery and I just got promoted to be their boss 6 months ago. (I am night supervisor on my floor). I work with a great bunch of nurses that are a great support to me.

There are alot of nurses at the recovery meetings I go to, I am sure that many people would be surprised at just who was in recovery.

TC

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Specializes in ER, TRAUMA, MED-SURG.
Nurses in recovery can be and are great nurses. I have been in recovery for 6 years now. I never stole drugs from work, but given more time in active addiction I am sure it would have come to that. I thank God that I had the chance to get treatment and now have a great life in recovery.

I work on a very busy floor and most of the nurses I work with know I am in recovery and I just got promoted to be their boss 6 months ago. (I am night supervisor on my floor). I work with a great bunch of nurses that are a great support to me.

There are alot of nurses at the recovery meetings I go to, I am sure that many people would be surprised at just who was in recovery.

TC

Hello, glad to see your post on this subject! With some of the rather negative postings regarding us not working since we are addicts, but in recovery, you, as well as Tazzi and Catittude make me feel like I'm not alone in my feelings that we can do our jobs like any other nurse that does not fight this.

Anne, RNC

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Specializes in Lie detection.
Nurses in recovery can be and are great nurses. I have been in recovery for 6 years now. I never stole drugs from work, but given more time in active addiction I am sure it would have come to that. I thank God that I had the chance to get treatment and now have a great life in recovery.

ITC

Good for you and glad to see you posting!

Hello, glad to see your post on this subject! With some of the rather negative postings regarding us not working since we are addicts, but in recovery, you, as well as Tazzi and Catittude make me feel like I'm not alone in my feelings that we can do our jobs like any other nurse that does not fight this.

Anne, RNC

No you are not alone my sister nurse in recovery. As said already, there are so many of "us" out there it's mind boggling. If anyone thinks the solution is to get rid of us forever, well that's just crazy.

And you have to think that it's just plain scary that such a concept is so commonplace, that administration thinks it's better to let the issue lay than to have to actually deal with it.

~faith,

Timothy.

You made so many great points but this sums it all up so well. I know that my admin. was supposed to be one of the "good" ones when it came to dealing with addicted nurses. well I didn't see it. i just felt like they couldn't wait to get rid of me and pass me on to be someone else's problem.

You know how I got help? My loving fiance' and myself. WE got me into a program for addicted nurses and I continues getting help from there. I had to search for the help i needed and it took years.

I'll tell you this, had I worked at IBM or Verizon, I'm quite sure I could have gotten help a LOT sooner. But work in a health profession? oh no, it's all hush hush or punish. It's got to change quicker than it is.

We need to treat ourselves just as well as we treat our patients. And that's starts with chaging some of the attitudes of our fellow colleagues. ;)

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Two of the best, most skillful, knowledgeable nurses I know are recovering addicts. One was an alcoholic andf the other I believe was some sort controlled substance. I cant imagine barring these 2 excellent nurses.... it would be a total loss to our profession.

I know of SEVERAL recovering addicts....... Tazzi and other are so right, there are many more than you would ever imagine, but do we really want to loose a wonderful nurse because she was fell victim to an addiction?

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A nurse in the midst of addiction is not a wonderful nurse, s/he is an impaired nurse and dangerous. Once clean and sober, we are competent and functional human beings who have the same passion for our profession as non-addicted nurses.

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What type of recovery programs do the different states have? I know someone in Colorado who is probably getting out of nursing because the one they have there is so difficult to work with and costs hundreds of dollars a month. And an impossible paperwork burden. This person has decided they can make a living doing something else more easily than trying to comply with everything they have to do there. This person voluntarily entered the program and is very sorry now.

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Specializes in L&D, M/B.

The nursing recovery programs are different for every state. You will have to contact you BON for your state to find out what that program entails.

The one in Fla. is tough, but it's set up for the safety of the pt's. The BON just wants to make sure the nurse is safe to practice nursing. You have to WANT recovery for it to work. Recovery does NOT just fall into your lap. It is alot of work.

I was slowly killing myself in my active addiction and am glad I have my recovery now. I feel I am a much better nurse now that I keep a good recovery program in my life. ( I personally feel most people would benefit from some type of recovery program in their life even if they NEVER took any drugs because recovery teaches you to live life on lifes terms but I will get off my soap box.......sorry)

TC

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Specializes in Lie detection.
What type of recovery programs do the different states have? I know someone in Colorado who is probably getting out of nursing because the one they have there is so difficult to work with and costs hundreds of dollars a month. And an impossible paperwork burden. This person has decided they can make a living doing something else more easily than trying to comply with everything they have to do there. This person voluntarily entered the program and is very sorry now.

Well any nurse that thinks it's going to be easy OR cheap is going to be shocked. It usually entails at least 2 years of committments. That means random urine tests, worksite monitoring, written reports, weekly support groups, 12 step meetings, and yes lots and lots of paperwork. It's difficult for a reason. Addicted nurses do not get off easy. I personally know some that have been on monitoring programs for 2-3 years and have spent thousands of dollars trying to get their lives back.

( I personally feel most people would benefit from some type of recovery program in their life even if they NEVER took any drugs because recovery teaches you to live life on lifes terms but I will get off my soap box.......sorry)

TC

Heh heh heh. I "get" what you're saying. So many people without addictions still have toxic character flaws/defects and could definitely benefit from some help! I suggest anyone who has been affected by addiction/alcoholism to get to an Al-Anon or Nar-Anon meeting. It may give you tremendous support and hope.

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Anyone who quits because the recovery process is too hard or costs too much is making excuses to say "See, it doesn't work." It's not supposed to be easy, it's supposed to be one of the hardest things one has ever done.

I agree that even non-addicts should go through a program, because I am not the same person now as I was pre-addiction. I have a whole different outlook on life. I was so angry when I was first confronted --- not because I was caught, but because "They" said I had to do this and that and everything else, rather than letting me do it my way. Now I know that it was the best thing that could have happened to me.

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Specializes in ER, TRAUMA, MED-SURG.

Hey janetjanetbobanet! (I hope my spelling is right!)

I was SO glad to see your post regarding this topic. I know that it is not a popular subject for obvious reasons, but it needs to be out there for education for a number of reasons. first, because when I was in nsg school, I was one of the ignorant ones saying, "Well, I know that wont ever happen to me." Well, it happened to me. everyone from nsg students to CNAs to new graduate nurses and older nurses in the employment settings need to know, if they dont already that is real and can happen to anyone.

Second, other nurses need to be educated that just because a nurse becomes impaired does not mean that they can never work as a nurse again and that they can again become productive citizens of society IF THEY ADMIT THEIR PROBLEM GET HELP AND stay in their program. And just like another poster said, recovery is not just giving "clean urine specimens", it is going to meetings, being in close contact with their sponsor, staying away from people places and things, knowing their triggers, ect. It is a long hard road but we (addicts) can do it.

Sorry for the long post, but this hits home because my husband and I are both RNs and recovering addicts. Different drug of choice, different situations when we got into recovery, but both have over 6 years under our belts.

I wanted to respond to your qusetion about different state BON programs. I was terminated from my job after a positive drug screen. I lost my health insurance when I was terminated, so I went inpatient to our state facility for an inpatient 30 day program. During my stay they decided that I would not have to live in a halfway house, which some nurses in the facility did have to do. Since this way my first ''rodeo'', so to speak, I was terrified. About going to meetings because either I would not know anyone, or I would know someone and they would make furn of me. At the time I didn't think about the fact that if I saw someone there I knew, they were basically in the same boat. In our state, first offense usually is 3 years in our RNP, and also :

aftercare meeting once a week

on site monitoring by NM and random UDS by the facility

no narc giving at least 6 months, no nights, no OT for a while

RNP meetings with other nurses in recovery

work with your sponsor, working on the 12 steps

other meetings in your area

calender of meetings you attend sent into boards

random UDS per BON

I may be omitting a few others but this are the highlights in La. Again, please excuse the long post, but I was so happy to see your posting asking about it. Feel free to pm me if you like for any other information. Other excellent resources that are excellent are Catittude and Tazzi. They are my heroes!

Anne, RNC

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In CA it's basically the same as what Anne listed. Once reported to the BON we are given the option of going through the Diversion program, and if it's completed successfully 5 years later the complaint is wiped, there is no record of it. If we do not qualify for Diversion, or opt out, or fail it, then there is an investigation by the BON through the state attorney general's office. Most are place on probation for three years and the conditions are similar to those in the Diversion program. The only difference is that with probation, the record is public. If you look up my license status it will tell you that I was discipline, why, when, and what my status is now.

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