I am in a monitoring program for psychosis, not substance use. But I have to get UAs anyway, same as anyone else. I'm losing my mind over all the ways I could accidentally fail a drug test. I thought I could just avoid drugs and alcohol and be fine. But now I'm realizing I have to worry about sugar alcohols, poppy seeds, alcohol in cleaning products etc.
It seems impossible to pass this program! Almost every beauty product I have has alcohol in it. My case manager insists I don't have to worry about these with "normal use". But then I see all kinds of stories online about people getting false positives from food and household products.
Has anyone here actually made it through the program without false positives?
That makes sense and sounds reasonable to me. I would do the same. You have to make a living first and foremost.
Of course my full time job had to be the one that wasn't protected under FMLA. Otherwise that would've been the easy choice. I'm hoping I can transition to another role within the same organization that my PRN job is at. If not then I'm in the same boat as a lot of folks on this website. Putting in tons of applications until something works out.
I'm not one to discourage you but the program is very hard. It expensive everything you do is out of pocket even when u can't nurse. I'm a nurse of 24 years and just really want to give up. But wishing luck to all of you! In Vahpmp
I'm not one to discourage you but the program is very hard. It expensive everything you do is out of pocket even when u can't nurse. I'm a nurse of 24 years and just really want to give up. But wishing luck to all of you! In Vahpmp
4 things to make it through. It's inconvenient, but doable.
1. Don't miss check ins, period. Simply put, do NOT miss check ins. It opens you up on their radar and raises your profile. You want to get to a place in monitoring where it's almost no contact and they forget about you. Miss check ins, and you are in the spotlight.
2. Cough syrup, Benadryl, Antihistamines when you have the cold or allergies or heartburn. Don't do it. Sure, you can get permission and/or a script, but see step one above about remaining low on their radar. You have to call to get permission to argue about the Dextromethorphan in the cough syrup or the antihistamines, etc. You open yourself up to Their Radar. Just go straight to antibiotics. If you absolutely need allergy medicine, then you become dependent on the physician emailing the script to your case manager and if he or she forgets, once again you become entangled in an argument and at the end of the day, More Stress added to you with all the emails and calls and back and forth.
3. Dilute. If you don't pee for 3 hours before you test and eat a protein bar 3 hours before you test, you will not have a dilute. This gives your body 3 hours to pour creatinine into your bladder from the kidneys. Yes, you will be OK if you have a dilute, but once again, you just opened yourself up again and go to the front of their radar, and when you come to the front of their radar, here come the more frequent tests, more hair tests, more expensive or weird tests and more demands by the monitoring program.
4. Late personal and quarterly reports and LAZY communication. Don't be late on your personal quarterly reports to the BON and always cc your Supervisor from work when you send your personal quarterly report tp the BON. In the email, you inform the BON that "here is my personal quarterly report AND...."I have sent a reminder to my supervisor and cc'd her in this email as a reminder for her to send you my quarterly Employer report." See how easy that one extra sentence is, but how powerful? You are basically informing the BON that you have reminded your Supervisor to send your Quarterly Supervisor Report, so you are showing the BON you are being Proactive, but it's also a reminder to your supervisor as they are now in the loop on the email. At the end of the day, your Supervisor is the one who can only send the quarterly report to the BON and the BON knows that and if it's late, the BON gets upset at YOU. But, at least you are showing the BON that you arr being Proactive in reminding your Suoervisorr and they LIKE that. You aren't being Lazy with communication. You are being Proactive!
Do the above 4 things, and obviously, no drugs or alcohol and you are going to graduate and lower your stress by 10 fold. For the people that have trouble, most of them, not all, but many of them love controversy or stress or some kind of battle or conflict. They just literally can't help themselves and they have to have it and maybe not at the conscious level, but at the subconscious level, these nurses just can't help themselves and they have to be entangled into some kind of argument or controversy with their case manager or the BON. AVOID the BON and your Case Manager as much as possible, other than the obvious requires communication and stay LOW on their radar by the 4 steps above.
Steps 1 through 4, if done, lowers stress and they are things we as Nurse Can Control. We can't completely Remove All Stress in the monitoring program as some is Out of our control, but most of it is controllable by us and we can actually decrease stress and future stress/problems in the program simply by doing the 4 steps above.
I'm not one to discourage you but the program is very hard. It expensive everything you do is out of pocket even when u can't nurse. I'm a nurse of 24 years and just really want to give up. But wishing luck to all of you! In Vahpmp
It is. It's awful. We're paying to be prisoners. I just count the days until I'm free
It is. It's awful. We're paying to be prisoners. I just count the days until I'm free
Me too. Holidays are hard for me to be in a good mood. IDK about anyone else. It's not even the can't drink part, it's just the whole idea of it. Black cloud. Counting down days too. Won't last forever, it will end.
Me too. Holidays are hard for me to be in a good mood. IDK about anyone else. It's not even the can't drink part, it's just the whole idea of it. Black cloud. Counting down days too. Won't last forever, it will end.
Same. I especially miss vacations. We are allowed to go but I refuse to spend time on vacation going to drug test. This too shall pass. Maybe like a kidney stone but it will pass
Same. I especially miss vacations. We are allowed to go but I refuse to spend time on vacation going to drug test. This too shall pass. Maybe like a kidney stone but it will pass
It's tough, but it's doable. I eat what I want, except for poppyseeds. focus on getting through the tests and don't worry about food. Make a countdown timer.
(I'm having trouble posting a new thread on this forum)
Mentally, try your best not to give the monitoring program Power. Stop being the victim in one sense (not to say BON's aren't riddled with corruption because many of them are) but if you wake up everyday and you "dred the monitoring program" or you "countdown this or that," or you are worried about this food or that food or this test or that test, you are giving the monitoring program way to much power. Don't give it that much power or thought. Wake up, check in, pee if selected, otherwise, don't think about it until the next report is due. This isn't easy, but it makes it doable, especially when you don't fear it or give it way more respect than it deserves. Don't do drugs and alcohol, check in daily, pee if selected, if not selected, don't give the monitoring program another thought. I don't respect it enough to THINK about it, unless I'm selected to pee or a monthly/quarterly report is due.
Mentally, try your best not to give the monitoring program Power. Stop being the victim in one sense (not to say BON's aren't riddled with corruption because many of them are) but if you wake up everyday and you "dred the monitoring program" or you "countdown this or that," or you are worried about this food or that food or this test or that test, you are giving the monitoring program way to much power. Don't give it that much power or thought. Wake up, check in, pee if selected, otherwise, don't think about it until the next report is due. This isn't easy, but it makes it doable, especially when you don't fear it or give it way more respect than it deserves. Don't do drugs and alcohol, check in daily, pee if selected, if not selected, don't give the monitoring program another thought. I don't respect it enough to THINK about it, unless I'm selected to pee or a monthly/quarterly report is due.
You're right, I've gotten into more of a groove now where I just check if I need to test every day, turn in reports, and that's it. I feel less worried about incidental exposure.
Every now and then, I would get sent a document to sign by my program manager because the beauracrats were "updating" one of their stupid policies. One time, I had to send in my "job description." It seems that things like this are done to seemingly mess with you or stress you out. I sent them in. I didn't ask "Why do you need my job description," and O didn't argue or debate or say hello or say hi or say thank you or say "here's my job description as requested." I simply responded to the email with an uploaded job description and said no more and clicked enter. Moved on. I'm not interested in a "conversstion" or "doscussion" or argument. My view is....keep a low profile, because I'm sure that I was likely NOT the only nurse emailed that day requesting their updated "job description." Ot was probably emailed to many nurses in the program. I can also deduce that it would be a given that there would be that 1 or 2 nurses out there that wanted to argue with them or start "asking questions" so my view is.....let these nurses be in the spotlight of the case manager. Their ignorance and arguing with the case manager takes the spotlight off of me, and I keep my head down and avoid them like the plaque as much as I have control of Without being non-compliant.
Same. I especially miss vacations. We are allowed to go but I refuse to spend time on vacation going to drug test. This too shall pass. Maybe like a kidney stone but it will pass
That's crazy, we don't have to test when we are on vacation (but we do have to go to this peer group meeting). But you have to put in for a monitoring interruption. They have some arbitrary rules about how many you can take and how long you can go before they decide to extend your contract. I went to Spain for 3 weeks, and had to extend my contract to go. I only did it because I had some family things that I couldn't miss. Part of me is glad I went, but another part feels it wasn't worth it. Now, I still plan to go on vacation but only if I don't have to extend my contract.
NurseGray
23 Posts
Of course my full time job had to be the one that wasn't protected under FMLA. Otherwise that would've been the easy choice. I'm hoping I can transition to another role within the same organization that my PRN job is at. If not then I'm in the same boat as a lot of folks on this website. Putting in tons of applications until something works out.