In Professional Healthcare Monitoring Program

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Hi, I am an RN enrolled in my state's (PA) monitoring program (PNAP). I totally get the program. It helps nurses involved in an addiction to get back on track. I have a mobike app called Recovery Trek that I need to check in daily to find out if I need a drug screening that day. I have to pay $60 a pop for this 'privilege'. I had a blood draw done on 9/16, and now a week later (9/23) I have another "random" test scheduled. I lost my job 5 months ago, and have not been cleared yet to work as an RN. They're killing me with these drug screenings! What a freaking positive way for a company to make money. Just venting, I guess.

I have recovery trek. Heck the whole thing is intrusive. Inpatient was worse than anything the army threw at me in terms of nonsense but it has gone downhill in level of garbage since. You gotta do what u gotta do but you don’t gotta like it or agree with it

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Specializes in Oncology; Psychiatry..

@SpankedInPittsburgh you make a good point! ..and that's impressive that you were in the army! We will all be stronger, and perhaps, a tiny bit more cynical once this is all over. Through suffering comes growth! ?

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I was in the program for 5 years- it was suppose to be 4 but I missed a test twice on mistake and time got added because of that. The program is expensive, frustrating and stressful and you do need someone to vent to, otherwise you will never get through it. I just tried to remember it was just something that had to be done and I stopped questioning the validity on how it was helping me to recover, because it was causing me more stress than anything. Just remember time goes fast and this is only a blink of an eye in your life.

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Sometimes suffering simply leads to more suffering. It’s why dumb folks (myself included) keep making poor choice after poor choice.

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Specializes in Psychiatric.
On 10/6/2019 at 1:17 PM, SpankedInPittsburgh said:

Pa is still three years but in reality it usually works out to about four as time doesn’t start until the board signs the contract upon entry and then when your time is up you have to wait for them to sign it again. I’m past three years now and still have months to go

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Specializes in Psychiatric.

Hey Spanked - I began communicating with PNAP last April. Despite this, I didn't have a signed contract until July 2019. I was going to AA daily. I heard a doctor say at a HCP 12 step meeting, you getting sober is not the goal of these monitoring programs. It's to protect the public. I realize PNAP/PHMP is not therapy. I'm really involved in AA now, and running into the same people now, and making friends. That's really the most important aspect of recovery.

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Kira I think you are right. Monitoring Programs operate under a facade of recovery but they have nothing to do with recovery itself. I’m certainly not a 12 stepper by any stretch of the imagination but I think they start with “We admitted we were powerless over...” not we are telling you to do all this stuff or you lose your career. One is recovery. The other is simple punishment for sins to the profession real or perceived

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On 10/6/2019 at 3:52 PM, catsmeow1972 said:

That’s pretty much how these things work. Florida, definitely. Obscenely expensive, minimal choices for so-called ‘required’ evaluations which are nothing more than a firehose of cash into the pockets of the person doing the evaluation ($1000 for a little chat with some creep and a bunch of toxicology testing, really?) Those choices of evaluators also seem to have a financial interest or some affiliation with treatment programs, which of course they recommend/force/require, what have you. Those evaluations are even more of a complete farce when one figures out that it doesn’t matter what got you in there, you aren’t getting out without a contract. Why bother with the evaluation when the outcome is already known? Oh yeah....cha-Ching!!
I think, out in the real world, there’s some legal requirement that says the patient is to be informed when the doctor that is sending them for a procedure or test is going to be making money off of said test, and give them the option to go elsewhere. Not so with this. As you say, they are all in bed with each other.
I totally get the idea of monitoring but It seems that in many states the program has become such a corrupt cash cow for the very few, while ruining lives and careers with out oversight. There’s nothing about recovery in these things. IMO, it’s extortion, plain and simple...with your license and ability to earn a living held hostage.

If you read through the threads here, there’s not too many that have a positive opinion of this. Some do, and they are probably of the sector that needed such a thing. I maintain, in a non corrupt form, a monitoring program can be a life and career saver. Most of us, however view this experience as one to be survived. The ridiculousness is no great secret but because there is so much shadowy money flow behind the scenes and by the time most of us either make it out of the meat grinder alive or give up and find something else to do with our lives, we are so burnt and tired we just want to put it in the past and move on. Understandably so and that’s why I’m not sure there will be any change anytime soon. The most seminal case is a class action against the Michigan program but it hasn’t moved a whit in a few years so that tells you when change will come for the rest of the country....the 5th of god only knows when.

Thank you. Catsmeow! Lots of these relate to me. Two years in PHP are behind, three = to go. One day at a time.

Here is the related article. 800+ comments. I shared my experience in a few posts as well.

https://www.doximity.com/newsfeed/ded72dee-c265-4f03-a28e-ec9f04ed954a

I Was a Physician for 35 Years. It Took 15 Minutes to Lose My Medical License

By Anne Louise Phelan-Adams, MDSeptember 30, 2019 Original article

"...Three years ago, the State Medical Board of Ohio ordered me, with the tacit threat of license suspension, to undergo a 72-hour evaluation for substance abuse at a drug rehab hospital in northeastern Ohio. A year before that, a personal crisis had thrown me into an acute state of grief, anxiety, insomnia, and panic attacks — in the immediate aftermath, I used drugs and alcohol to self-treat my symptoms. Although nine months had passed since I recovered from this crisis, a diplomat of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), who spent less than 15 minutes reviewing my case, diagnosed me with alcoholism and addiction and “recommended” inpatient treatment at the facility where he was the medical director. He made it clear that, if I refused his recommendation, he would, within 48 hours, report me to my board as “non-compliant,” putting my medical license in jeopardy..."

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Yep I was “evaluated” by a rehab center who recommended inpatient then outpatient treatment at the very same rehab center until my insurance company literally cut the cash off. Once they did I was discharged the same day. Further if I didn’t agree to go they told me I’d be reported to the board as non compliant and lose my license. This all sounds very familiar. Apparently the shakedown varies little from state to state

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Hi

i just know being in the program is what matters. I also think things should go much faster with dealing with a board of nursing. I only know my own personal experience and I look at a bigger picture. I think after saving lives and keeping people alive and then being dropped out with no way to survive in my opinion should be illegal

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