Do nurses with suspended licenses or on probation due to drugs seem to end up working in dialysis clinics?

[CoThG, BSN, RN]

A friends husband is a nurse that was fired from a hospital ICU for irregularities in the accounting of narcotic pain meds while he was on duty. He had a cover story that he quit due to being burned out from nursing and wanted to take a break from a hospital setting. 

This sounded suspicious as he was accepted and was getting ready to start CRNA school in a few months. I looked up his license status on the state BON website and it shows him suspended. Reading the documents from the BON, he refused to reply to the charges against him and the BON indefinitely suspended his license. 

Come to find out that he's now working at a local dialysis clinic. Researching this forum and other sites, it seems that dialysis clinics hire nurses with suspended licenses due to drug issues.  I don't know in what capacity he works there as he clearly can't exercise the privileges of his nursing license. 

How common is it for nurses with drug and/or licensure issues work in dialysis clinics?

[caliotter3]

Gee, many, many years ago when I applied for a job at a dialysis clinic in response to a job ad, they would not even give me the time of day.  Now to read that people with murky backgrounds can get hired there willy nilly,  makes me even more disappointed.

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

If he has a suspended license, I don't see how he's working anywhere as a nurse.

Dialysis clinics don't administer any narcotics, it's why they can be friendly to recovering nurses. Some areas are in desperate need of dialysis nurses, for some reason, we get pigeonholed with LTC-and neither job is second class, regardless of how we're treated. We tend to make more $$$ and have decent, although sometimes long, hours. Where I live in Indiana, the jobs are filled almost as soon as posted, so I drive about an hour each way to a larger area that has more offerings 

[CoThG, BSN, RN]

10 minutes ago, Hoosier_RN said:

If he has a suspended license, I don't see how he's working anywhere.

Dialysis clinics don't administer any narcotics, it's why they can be friendly to recovering nurses. Some areas are in desperate need of dialysis nurses, for some reason, we get pigeonholed with LTC-and neither job is second class, regardless of how we're treated. We tend to make more $$$ and have decent, although sometimes long, hours. Where I live in Indiana, the jobs are filled almost as soon as posted, so I drive about an hour each way to a larger area that has more offerings 

LIke I said, I don't know in what capacity he's working at the clinic. Do you need state licensure to be a tech?

[Sour Lemon]

1 hour ago, CoThG said:

A friends husband is a nurse that was fired from a hospital ICU for irregularities in the accounting of narcotic pain meds while he was on duty. He had a cover story that he quit due to being burned out from nursing and wanted to take a break from a hospital setting. 

This sounded suspicious as he was accepted and was getting ready to start CRNA school in a few months. I looked up his license status on the state BON website and it shows him suspended. Reading the documents from the BON, he refused to reply to the charges against him and the BON indefinitely suspended his license. 

Come to find out that he's now working at a local dialysis clinic. Researching this forum and other sites, it seems that dialysis clinics hire nurses with suspended licenses due to drug issues.  I don't know in what capacity he works there as he clearly can't exercise the privileges of his nursing license. 

How common is it for nurses with drug and/or licensure issues work in dialysis clinics?

I'd guess that most dialysis nurses do not have substance abuse problems or disciplinary actions against them. Is there some reason why you're so interested in your friend's husband?

[CoThG, BSN, RN]

9 minutes ago, Sour Lemon said:

I'd guess that most dialysis nurses do not have substance abuse problems or disciplinary actions against them. Is there some reason why you're so interested in your friend's husband?

Because he's being so secretive about being suspended and his cover story is BS. He was all hung-ho about being a nurse and going to CRNA school and "suddenly" doesn't have the passion for its anymore and takes a menial job at a loading dock before working at a dialysis clinic. 

The whole story smelled, and rumors were flying that there was a drug incident in the same unit he worked at the hospital, which is a small county hospital, and with him suddenly leaving, it was easy to put two and two together. Plus, having it confirmed on the state BON license lookup. 

He and his wife still think no one knows about his status. 

I was just curious as it seems that dialysis is a "haven" for nurses with drug problems. 

[caliotter3]

Well, it wasn't a "haven" for me, a nurse without a job at the time, despite a clean record.

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

8 minutes ago, CoThG said:

I was just curious as it seems that dialysis is a "haven" for nurses with drug problems. 

Are you basing your pronouncement on this one anecdote?

[CoThG, BSN, RN]

4 minutes ago, Jedrnurse said:

Are you basing your pronouncement on this one anecdote?

No. There are many posts on this forum alone with nurses with drug and/or licensure issues that are now working in dialysis.

[chare]

27 minutes ago, CoThG said:

41 minutes ago, Sour Lemon said:

I'd guess that most dialysis nurses do not have substance abuse problems or disciplinary actions against them. Is there some reason why you're so interested in your friend's husband?

Because he's being so secretive about being suspended and his cover story is BS. He was all hung-ho about being a nurse and going to CRNA school and "suddenly" doesn't have the passion for its anymore and takes a menial job at a loading dock before working at a dialysis clinic.

And this is your concern how?

[CoThG, BSN, RN]

3 minutes ago, chare said:

And this is your concern how?

He's hiding the fact that he was suspended. 

[caliotter3]

Maybe he just has that high a level of personal shame.