I am a new grad (well technically now have been there a year but haven't worked in 3 months )nurse in the CVICU in a pretty big hospital. So I recently took time off for exhaustion and depression. I was off the schedule. On the second day off, I drank alcohol and got drunk. This scared me because I have a past history of alcohol abuse. I spoke to employee assistance and they told me if it happened again, I should seek outpatient treatment. That day, I drank again and blacked out. So 2 days later, I met with a counselor to seek treatment. She suggested a 4 week outpatient treatment program as a sort of reboot since I had long term sobriety prior to this, but had the potential to get much worse. I agreed, but told her I would have to get extended leave prior to doing this since it would not leave me time to fulfill my work schedule. I spoke with the manager of my unit (a nurse). She told me that our conversation would be private and confidential and would not go anywhere. I told her that I just needed medical leave for my time off and she kept prodding, specifically asking me if there was substance abuse involved. Since she said it would be confidential, I confided in her and told her yes. A week later she tries to fire me for accusations that weren't true. I immediately called her on it and told here I could prove they weren't true. She rehired me the next day. (This also would have cancelled my insurance and I would have been unable to finish treatment). The next day, I get a call from the state board saying someone filed a complaint saying that I was in treatment. Because of my manager's betrayal of our private conversation, I have to be in a 5 year monitoring program. Keep in mind that I did not work impaired, I put no patient's in harm's way, I sought recovery on my own after having drank only 2 times while on leave from work. I want to know if this is legal. I sought council from my employer's legal department and they have kept me employed there but I haven't worked in 3 months now. The lawyer was supposed to find me a position on another unit and he has stopped returning my calls and emails. Should I seek council outside of my employer? Is what she did in reporting our confidential conversation to the state board illegal?
