lost license, now what

[rnnolonger]

Hi all, I am a BSN educated former RN. I had to voluntarily relinquish my RN license. (I went to a therapist because I thought I might be an alcoholic and he threatened to report me, so I relinquished my license.) I have no discipline or complaint against my license. But Now what do I do for a career? I would like to utilize my education at least a little bit. Any suggestions?

[NurseDiane]

What can you do with a BSN but no RN license? Not much, unfortunately. You can use the BSN to go back to college & transfer credits to another major if you want, though.

I think referring patients to a place that the health care provider runs is illegal. There is something called the "Stark Law", which prevents providers from referring patients to facilities that they or any family member has a financial interest in. Check it out.

[Conqueror+, BSN, RN]

I feel like there are holes in this story. A BSN is a lot of work. I find it hard to envision someone without another means of income mailing their license to the board with a note because a therapist threatened to turn them in. Was there a DUI or some other catastophe that prompted the trip to counseling ?

[Isanahlei]

I feel like there are holes in this story. A BSN is a lot of work. I find it hard to envision someone without another means of income mailing their license to the board with a note because a therapist threatened to turn them in. Was there a DUI or some other catastophe that prompted the trip to counseling ?

I agree something is missing from this post.

[Isanahlei]

Not to add that a therapist is held under HIPPA guidelines

and should not have been obligated to report someone.

[Isanahlei]

I worked to hard to become a RN. I went through 7yrs of Florida's IPN program for a DUI that had nothing to do with my employment. Again, I think there is more to this post. You may want to go in front of your State Board to see what may be able to be done. It's worth a try. Did you actually relinquish it, or did you go inactive?

[morte, LPN, LVN]

she/he sounds like some one who just wants out of nursing. why are "we" questioning that?

[dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN]

Not to add that a therapist is held under HIPPA guidelines

and should not have been obligated to report someone.

This is not entirely true. The therapist is usually obligated to report if there is potential for harm to the patient population. It's a professional ethical standard that does vary by state licensing board.

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

Wow, that must have been some therapy session. I wouldn't think that a therapist would be allowed to report anything you say in a confidential session unless it is something that clearly indicates you are a danger to your patients.

It sounds like you don't really want to pursue nursing anyway as you have clearly stated your goal is to find alternate employment that can at least use your education. Right off hand the best options I can think of would be pharma or insurance. There are also companies that hire nurses that go into facilities for outside chart reviews. I see that add in the paper every now and then so I know they exist around here and this is an area with a smaller population base so if you are in a more urban settings there are probably even more positions like that.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do. I hope it all works out the way you want.

[CryssyD]

I'm pretty sure that a BSN without the RN is just so much window dressing; anyone interested in hiring a BSN is looking for a nurse, and if they need a nurse they probably need a licensed one, if only for legal/liability reasons. There are jobs out there that prefer people with any Bachelor's Degree, but I will guess that they are jobs, not careers. And if you're looking for something with a nursing-level pay grade, you are going to be looking a very long time. I wish you all the best of luck, but I fear you may have underestimated the difficulty of this path.

The only other thing I can say is that I sincerely hope you didn't decide to give up your nursing license because you wanted to retain your freedom to drink or not drink as you see fit. I'm not judging--truly I'm not. I was tempted to do the same thing. But I knew it was going to be a tremendous amount of work no matter which way I went--do the whole monitoring thing, or start over again in a completely different career. But no matter what path you choose to travel, a drinking problem is some pretty heavy baggage. Wherever you decide to go, leave that behind, OK?

Best of luck to you. :)

[rnnolonger]

Thanks for all the comments, I promise there is nothing left out. I have nothing to gain by doing that. I admit I absolutely hated nursing, so giving up my license was not too hard of a decision. I am waiting tables now and make almost the same amount of money with out all the stress and poop. I am not opposed to going back to school but would probably have to move to gain employment because I live in a very small resort town. Was thinking maybe public health/epidemiology. I was just hoping for some insight.

[GOP-RN]

TPAPN is available to help and in-patient treatment is not a requirement. She could have gone to AA meetings and hopefully and IOP for a while. Unless she is drinking on the job and putting patients at risk, he was out of line for threatening her.

[OBwonKnewbie]

Also intraoperative neuro monitoring, which I always thought would be interesting. They require at least a BS, and BSN is one of the preferred degrees.

What is intra operative neuro monitoring??