New grad needing help in PA

[Dahlia81]

Hello All!

New to this forum and I apologize for a long winded post, I just don't know what to do in my current situation and was hoping there are people on here that can offer advice. I graduated my PN program last month and was an honor roll student every semester. I've worked in healthcare for over 20 years as an aide and decided to enroll in school pre-pandemic, but I delayed things due to the pandemic until last year. I want to say that in all my years as an aide I've never had any disciplinary actions on my certificate, and in fact I'm highly requested by facilities to come aboard as house staff (I work for an agency). But I do have misdemeanor DUIs, from 8 years ago and 11 years ago. I've gone to treatment, currently attend outpatient counseling, work with a psychiatrist who is very knowledgeable in SUD and I'm currently on a stable medication regimen that I've been on for 2+ years. I applied for licensure and got my ATT but the board feels that I may have an impairment based on my criminal record (which their determination letter had multiple errors of the facts of my background) and referred me to the PHMP, who then referred me to PNAP (I'm in PA). They want me to have an eval and go for a one time drug test, which I have no problem doing if this was not all set up through PNAP. I feel they stand to benefit from an unfavorable eval, so I'm afraid I won't get a fair and unbiased eval. I consulted with several attorneys and got different advice from each one on what to do. I'm wondering if anyone here has had similar problems and what you've done? I've totally changed my life around and I'm not the person I was 8-10 years ago. My goal is to work in addictions nursing, at a rehab or something similar, to give hope to the addict that still struggles and let them know that you CAN have a future and your past isn't who you are today, but unfortunately the entire situation is stressing me out so much that I can't focus on preparing for the NCLEX. If anyone has dealt with a similar situation I'd love to hear your experience, and any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for listening!

[Yellowbird68]

They do stand to make money from an unfavorable eval.... But this is the only way. You can spend money and try to fight it but most of the time nothing happens and you're right back to where you started.  There's people in my group that literally shouldn't be there, 0 drug issues.... But they can get you on mental health contract too, Sometimes it's better to just play their game and be done with it.