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Discussion

7 months to go...and now this

This is long, sorry!

When I entered TPAPN 2 1/2 years ago, I was a member of a medical/surgical team, (as a "side gig", NOT my full time job) employed by Health & Human Services (yes, the federal govt), that was created to respond to trauma related disasters worldwide. Before I was on the team, back in 2010, they went to Haiti and treated lots of crush injuries and amputations after the earthquake. My employment was called "intermittent", and I only ever deployed if called, which was a total of twice in 3 years. Once was training, the other time was to be onsite during the 4th of July activities in D.C., in case of a terrorist attack or other trauma related event. We saw mostly blisters and headaches at that event, btw. There are more members on the team than can actually be used at activities like the 4th of July, the Presidential inauguration, etc. It's easy to be on the team but never actually go anywhere.

When I entered TPAPN, I told the team leader that I needed to resign, for personal reasons, saying I wouldn't be able to deploy for at least a year, maybe two. I was NOT going to tell him about TPAPN, I'd had enough humiliation already and there was no need. I knew "a year, maybe two" wasn't accurate, but I figured the details didn't matter. I was resigning. Since hiring new team members with the federal government is a very long process (it took 3 years for my application to be approved!) he asked me to just go on inactive status, and when I felt I was ready, I could come back. I agreed.

When the hurricanes hit a few months ago, the team needed to be ready to deploy (but they never did), I was asked if I could deploy to Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands, if the team was called up. I really wanted to participate, so I asked my TPAPN case manager, and he said yes! I'd had 2 years of compliance with TPAPN, and this was a national emergency. My TPAPN case mgr had initially told me I could not participate on the team, when I first joined TPAPN, but it was now 2 years later and this was a special circumstance. Anyway, we didn't end up going after all.

Since then, the team leader seems to think I'm no longer on inactive status, and I've been asked to go to training or events (like the State of the Union address next week). As a member of the team, I can always decline deployment, they understand that we all have full time jobs and lives. So I declined, and I figured I would continue to decline if anything else comes up. The team is rarely used so it would mean me declining maybe once more in the next 7 months (when I'm out of TPAPN).

Now, for some reason, all the medical support teams all over the country (there are lots of DMATs, in addition to 3 trauma teams), are being required to have their nurses reapply for their positions. They are doing away with the pay grade (GS9) on the teams and everyone will be a GS11. They can't just make us all GS11s, we have to apply for the position, and it's open to the public too. My team leader seems to think this is just a formality, we all just need to go online and apply. He will receive the applications for all the nurses on his team and he'll hire them. However, we are being asked to submit a full application, with work and education details. At some point I'll be asked to show a copy of my nursing license.

Now, if I look up my nursing license online on nursys.com, or on the Texas BON, it shows active and unencumbered. TPAPN is supposed to keep any marks off my license. But, what happens if this application is NOT just a formality? What happens if they investigate me fully, as a new prospective employee? Will TPAPN show up anywhere? Actually hiring on with a new employer is against TPAPN rules, I can't work for more than one employer, and I never intended to. The team is intermittent and I tried to resign!

So what do I do? Tell them I am not going to reapply for my position? Tell them I'm in TPAPN? I REALLY don't want to do that! Or just submit the application and see what happens? Do they see something different than I do when they look up my nursing license? If this had been delayed just another 7 months, I'd have been out of TPAPN and it would never be an issue.

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    • Featured Replies

    Oh boy!!! Talk about bad timing. I work for the federal government and they do have the ability to find out just about anything. I'm not sure I see what you have to lose in applying for this position. It seems like your counselor already knows about it. The worse thing that could happen is that they don't retain you possibly. If you don't apply they won't retain you as a certainty. Good Luck. I really hope this works out for you

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    • Experts

    The easy out is to tell them you are not going to apply for the position. In due time, perhaps you can revisit this, but for now, I can see where you would not want to go into details. Don't just do the application and hope for the best. As you said, you can't have a new employer. Don't push your luck.

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    I did a brief (not quite 2 years) stint at the VA as a nurse. We were considered civilian Federal. I left because I was at one of the shall I say not so well run facilities and just could not deal with it taking 4 months, 3 meetings and begging a tech just to add a specialty pair of scissors to a surgeons tray. I have idly debated trying to go back, albeit at a different facility. Though the notion of the license issue is cringeworthy.

    Back when Katrina hit, I was out there with the Red Cross and that was a three way debacle if ever there was one. DMAT was also there and I was way impressed with how thier operations were ran. I swore that if I ever did disaster work again it was going to be through them. I never actually acted on that though. Doubt I could now....

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    • Author

    You know, you're right about how long it takes to get anything approved. As I said earlier, it took 3 years to get my first application approved; they had changed online systems 1/2 way through so I had to submit everything again. Considering that it's not just me, it's literally hundreds of nurses on all the DMATs and the three TCCTs (my team), it could easily take well over 7 months to get to my application.

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    It may not show up in the TX BON database but there is a National Provider Database that all states report to. And I don't know how or if you can get that suppressed (even if Texas is telling you that your case will be closed). You can check what that says about you.

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    • Author
    It may not show up in the TX BON database but there is a National Provider Database that all states report to. And I don't know how or if you can get that suppressed (even if Texas is telling you that your case will be closed). You can check what that says about you.

    Wow, I have never even heard of this! Well I went ahead and requested a self report to see what they had on me, and it shows that there have been no reports submitted on me, so that's good.

    I'm thinking that I will just go ahead and submit the application information they are asking for, and see what happens. As Spanked said, if I don't apply, I'm def not on the team, so I'm not really risking anything by applying. TPAPN is already aware of my placement on this team, I've exchanged several emails regarding this with my case manager. As long as I don't deploy with the team without approval from my case manager, which could cause TPAPN to say I've broken contract restrictions by having a second employer who hasn't submitted all the employer agreement forms, then I think it should all be ok on their end. I guess we will see.

    I do plan to wait until the deadline to apply though, because since most other people will probably procrastinate and submit their applications at the last minute, hopefully mine will be among several hundred that they receive and they won't even get to it for months. ;)

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    That's the spirit apply and see what happens. I work for the feds & if you do like you say and wait till the last moment to file their is a good chance you will get lost in the tidal wave of other applicants & it won't even be reviewed for a very long time. I'd hate to see you lose this opportunity because of your stay in this purgatory. I'm sure they have robbed you of plenty already

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    I believe there's an exclusion list of people that can't be affiliated with any entity receiving Medicaid/care (can't remember which). But those people are usually only reported to that list if you have charges pressed. I've done extensive research on this and as long as you voluntarily entered your peer program (or whatever the "alternative to discipline" is) then they shouldn't know about any prior participation to those programs once you're done. Now if the BON tells you you have to go then that's a different story and you usually have a mark on your license at that point.

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