Is this TPAPN order fair?

Nurses Recovery

Published

Hey y'all,

I'll put it to you straight:

I voluntarily submitted myself to the Texas BON.

Got DWI in Minnesota last year.

I immediately started attending AA meetings. Since April 2019 I've been going twice a week every week. That's 1 & 1/4 year. On my own volition.

I've been sober since October 26th, 2019. That was the day I entered rehab.

Signed up to attend rehab at my first available chance. Completed 30 days in-patient rehab and was successfully discharged - voluntarily. No one told me to but I thought it would be a good idea to do it anyways.

Moved back to TX and got evaluated again - again on my own volition - and was told I was on the right track.

Got everything cleared away with the board of nursing. Sent them letters from my sponsor, letters from my probation officer, etc.

Told them I have Asperger's syndrome/high functioning autism and that I had no interest in ever being a bedside nurse again - I want to go into nursing research and go back to school for bioinformatics.

Got evaluated for TPAPN; evaluator says:

"...responded to the test with a desire to present himself in a favorable light, indicating a need for approval by others, and it can also highlight poor insight into his own emotional functioning. Overall, [my] approach to testing may underestimate his actual emotional distress"

" approached the assessment situation in a highly defensive manner, showing a tendency to avoid acknowledging any signs of personal problems or limitations."

If actions speak louder than words, how can any of what she said be true? I have done everything in my power to help myself.

TPAPN comes back and gives me 3 years.

3 years? That's longer than my 2 year probation - which according to my probation officer is likely to be cut down to one for good behavior/adherence to the rules/proper follow-up.

I know I've vented a little bit during this post. All I need is an answer to this question and then I'll shut up for good:

Is this fair?

Nothing about any of this is fair. They will take advantage of the cash any way they can I’m sorry you’re going through this.

Fair? Hmm. Nope. But if you want the privilege of practicing nursing in the State of Texas buckle up. It’s gonna be ride. You can do it. Before you know it you will be done. Good luck.

***EDIT: Before I go any further, I want to specify that by "fair" I mean fair compared to other TPAPN board orders people have received. Yes, I did wrong; yes, I must face the consequences - I have made my peace with that. I just want to know if this eval was just or not.

Specializes in OR.

I presume you have read enough to realize that these so-called ‘evaluations’ and these programs in general have little to nothing to do with recovery and more to do with separating you from significant amounts of cash.
So you got a DUI, for you that was apparently the ‘oh holy heck, I have a problem that I best do something about if I want to keep being a nurse and/or stay alive.’ Some people, it takes more.
Whatever the case may be, no matter how you present yourself, from throwing yourself to their mercy to being defiant as hell to doing everything right to doing everything wrong and every degree in between, these quacks are going to write whatever nonsensical gobbledegook they can use to justify trapping you into a monitoring contract wether it is appropriate or not.

So, the evaluation itself...a load of manure, as most of them are. The contract? You only got 3 years out of it? Consider yourself lucky. Many get 5. Is there a rhyme or reason to it? I don’t think so. It seems arbitrary.
Monitoring is about cash. Yours to them. Your recovery is about you. You do your recovery and just endure the monitoring.
It does end, eventually.

2 Votes
+ Add a Comment