I hope someone can help me on this. I have been reading through the threads related to this, but I'm just looking for more.
I was just denied a job at an agency because they said I tested positive for COCAINE! I don't use cocaine and have never abuse any drug! When I called and asked for the results they said my level was 202 and the cutoff level is 150.
Currently, I am not working as I left my last job voluntarily (I broke my ribs in March and was unable to continue doing lifting). No, I am not on narcotics.
I don't know how this is happening. A few days prior to this, I was cleaning out my sister's apartment who is addicted to meth and is currently in jail. She got evicted and it was up to my family to get her stuff out! And now, somehow I tested positive.
The agency of course said they are reporting it to the BON. I'm scared and not knowing what is going to happen. I'm in MN so I believe they have to offer you counseling and another chance, but what if I don't have a substance abuse problem and have never had one in my life. It's been a few days and I haven't heard anything from the BON, but from reading on here it says it can take a few months or longer.
I am currently interviewing for other positions (IRTS mental health facility, allergy clinic, telephone case management, and planned parenthood). I am completely at a loss and don't know what to do or even say because I'm sure that the BON is not going to believe anything that I have to say. HELP!
Oh god the costs!!!! Over $40K in lost wages when I had to switch from my ER position full of OT and shift diff to an office position. An additional year in school delaying my graduation with my DNP leading to more lost wages. Testing costs. Co-pays for the pure idiocy of inpatient and outpatient rehab which truly only made me wanna drink more......
I also recognize that I'm one of the very lucky ones. I've seen nurses terminated from their positions immediately upon being referred to a nurse monitoring program. Of course this means they also lose their medical benefits. I have no idea how much the detox professionals stole from my insurance company so they could basically tell me to start attending free 12 step programs but I bet it was a bunch and I got to keep collecting a paycheck (albeit greatly reduced) the whole time I was in "treatment".
For PNAP at least bankruptcy is a vital cog in recovery
The hair follicle test is valid for I think 3 months ago. So it can help to prove you were clean within the past 3 months. I would do it now. You might feel a need to repeat it when the board has you come in. They will have you come in eventually but as you said this can take many months or even years. I would definitely have one as soon as possible because you will be asking the board to believe that you are the 0.01% (I made up that percentage) of true positive tests that are actually innocent due to some environmental contamination. Also, a hair follicle test doesn't prove you never did any drugs. One time use shouldn't show up. It just helps to prove you weren't a regular user within the past 3 months.
Get a job now, and I would get a lawyer as soon as you can afford one. If not now, as soon as you can. You really should at least call a few now and find out pricing. Sometimes they will give you some free preliminary advice over the phone. Some might have a free consultation. Some might have a payment plan. At least call a few and see what they say. You don't have to hire right now but at least see what they say. Call several, not just one.
As far as the pricing on the monitoring programs, all of the states have different programs with different requirements and different prices. My state let me go to a treatment facility of my choosing and one that was covered by my own insurance, which helps. It all depends on the state as far as how much you pay for the program. I won't even say how much mine is because I am in another state than you but it is very cheap compared to what some have posted on here. So I don't know about MN.
This is so tough. There is a nurse that I am in monitoring with who recently tested positive for cocaine. Alcohol was her drug of choice. She is three years in. She swears she didn't use, and I am quite inclined to believe her.
The problem is, our program's medical review officer told her that there are no known substances that cause a false positive for cocaine. They ran her split sample, and it was also positive.
Through the rumor grape vine, not her telling me, (take it with a grain of salt) her fiancee dabbled in cocaine, so if this were true, she certainly could have had an accidental exposure. The problem is there is a clause in our contracts that says that we are not to socialize with people who abuse illegal drugs, and second hand exposure still counts as a positive screen...so if this were the case with her fiancee, there would be no benefit in her fessing up anyway. She also had to submit a hair and nail test. Both were negative.
She was marked as having a positive. Now, fortunately for her, they didn't restart her monitoring time, she was just pulled from work for 3 weeks, had her testing frequency increased, and she had to do 90 in 90 (AA thing) again. But I believe the reason she didn't get a heavier punishment was due to the negative hair and nail tests, which at least show that there was not substantial exposure.
The point being that this may turn into mandatory monitoring for you, but hair and/or nail testing could prove that however you were exposed, it was absolutely minimal if the screenings come back negative.
Negative hair and/or nail tests may not get you out of a contract, but they could help minimize the scope and length of that contract. As for discipline, that varies from state to state.
My advice: get that testing ASAP. Find a job ASAP, best bet is something where you are not administering controlled substances. Stockpile cash from this job. It can takes many months for the board to get to you. Do whatever you can to find the cash to retain an attorney.
I did not retain an attorney because I was guilty as sin and had no plan to fight anything. My situation turned out relatively well, but if I had been innocent, I would have done and sold whatever I could to retain an attorney. The costs of an attorney are minimal compared to the monitoring program, truly. Even if an attorney gets the time in monitoring reduced or gets certain stipulations waived in monitoring, or gets you a stay of discipline, that will save you money and heart ache in the long run.
Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
First of all Neats, it's not fair for you to days that I'm superficial. I'm more trying to think that of course the BON is probably not going to believe me. I'm sure they have heard every excuse in the book before. I'm not an addict and I don't use drugs. I was simply making the comment wondering if it would just be easier. I have no idea how this works nor did I have any idea about the cost.
Just a questions, but why is the monitoring program so expensive? Were you not able to use insurance at all? Or did you not have insurance because you lost your job? I'm so sorry all of this happened to you. I believe that I found a lab here that will test hair and I plan on getting in there this week and then showing the results to the board whenever they contact me.
OK... your program in MN would cost you $0 per year to be in the program. You would have to pay for your own tox screens. That is it. See top of page 3.
I should probably add that if they required you to go to treatment you would be resposible for that cost. Hopefully you will have insurance that would cover that should the time come. Your state looks similar to my state as far as being very reasonable with costs and my state let me go anywhere I wanted for treatment so I chose a place my insurance would pay for. All of these programs operate differently and have different requirements and costs though.
Hopefully you won't need to do any of this anyway!
What if I say, fine I'll go into your monitoring program just to prove that I don't use drugs. Ideally, I would like to avoid going into it at all, but what if I just said fine I'll do your program and it will be no problem at all
Don't, just don't! If you are truly entirely innocent why would you damage your career, possibly beyond repair? I believe you by the way, my brother-in-law was in jail for a short period of time and tested positive for meth during a test upon returning to the county jail from a work program. He's never used meth in his life and since his entire day was supervised and he had zero symptom's of drug use beyond the positive test the jailer's determined it was a false positive and it was never mentioned again.
The consequences of entering their program will be catastrophic. Short term it's extremely intrusive and it could be extremely expensive. Plus you would most likely be prohibited from working any job around narcotics during monitoring making finding a job difficult if not darn near impossible. Long term it will be on your licensing record forever making finding jobs in the future much more difficult. Trust me, hiring a lawyer to fight this will cost way less that what you will pay out during the course of monitoring.
I am all for fighting it if you're lawyer agrees. On the other hand, fighting it and losing is worse than joining the program. If you fight it and you lose you could have a public and permanent discipline that any future employer or even nosey neighbor can view. It never goes away and would effect you far more than this program would. You would still have to join the program anyway if you lose.
I just don't know if they would believe your story. They have heard it all. I believe you but I don't know if they would. One other thing for you to know is that if you do join the program you can't have any alcohol at all. Not even a sip of wine on your birthday. You can't have Benadryl either and some other OTC's (usually they will allow OTC's with a doctor's prescription though).
One thing I see is that if you join the program you would be required to inform your employer. They would have to fill out some behavioral checklist quarterly. That would discourage me personally from wanting to join unless my lawyer really thought I had to. Although I have found most employers keep the employee on as long as their job does not involve controlled substances. Although not sure if they could legally fire you especially if you are there past 90 days (not sure about MN employer laws) as long as you don't have work restrictions conflicting with your job. I would be a little surprised if you would be fired from a case manager job, for example... but not at all surprised if you would be fired from a hospital or NH job dealing with narcotics. That is why you really should try to get a monitoring friendly job now.
Somewhere on the site you should be able to call anonymously and ask about your particular situation. Don't give them your name.
Please call a lawyer that specializes in RN licenses
I don't know why the link I posted says bad request... if the link isn't working for you just google " hpsp requirements minnesota" and it should be the first thing that shows up. Go to menu and view "prospective participants."
SpankedInPittsburgh, DNP, RN
1,847 Posts
Oh god the costs!!!! Over $40K in lost wages when I had to switch from my ER position full of OT and shift diff to an office position. An additional year in school delaying my graduation with my DNP leading to more lost wages. Testing costs. Co-pays for the pure idiocy of inpatient and outpatient rehab which truly only made me wanna drink more......
I also recognize that I'm one of the very lucky ones. I've seen nurses terminated from their positions immediately upon being referred to a nurse monitoring program. Of course this means they also lose their medical benefits. I have no idea how much the detox professionals stole from my insurance company so they could basically tell me to start attending free 12 step programs but I bet it was a bunch and I got to keep collecting a paycheck (albeit greatly reduced) the whole time I was in "treatment".
For PNAP at least bankruptcy is a vital cog in recovery