New to PNAP-questions!!!???

RN90210 · Sep 30, 2020

Hey! I’ve been in PNAP for 3 years. It is reallllly overwhelming at first, but I promise it’ll get easier.

As long as you’re compliant with the program, there is no disciplinary action on your license. The fact that you’re in PNAP is confidential to everyone other than your employer.

It is 100% necessary to tell your employee, as you have to submit monthly progress reports to PNAP, which includes where you’re working. Your employer also has to submit a brief report to them every 3 months. You do not have to disclose the reason you’re in the program to your employer.

This program is totally doable as long as you’re compliant. If you have any more questions, please ask!!

SngsRN · Oct 1, 2020

Just so I'm clear, you failed a random at work, correct? And your job contacted the BON? Did you get terminated from that job?

I completed PNAP a few years ago, so a lot might have changed since then, but did they make you get a D&A evaluation? I'd be surprised if the person doing the eval would have recommended you for monitoring if you told them that story. Things may have changed though. I don't remember PNAP digging through my medical records to find all of my past medical history and medication I used to be on. Did you tell them you were on Suboxone in the past? From what I remember, PNAP followed the recommendation of the person doing the D&A eval.

As far as the process, just do what you have to do. It sucks, I'm not going to lie, but it's absolutely do-able. It will be tough juggling IOP and work at first, and there will be a lot of days where you'll be doing 2 drug tests, but IOP is usually only 6 weeks. Hopefully you're in a good group...I wasn't so lucky. After IOP, they will probably recommend you do a relapse prevention group once/week, which you will have to do if your counselor recommends it. You'll be in that until your counselor decides you don't need to be anymore. After you're done counseling, the only requirements are making sure you get to your drug screens and filling out your meeting logs and progress notes. I'm not sure what they've been doing about meeting list signatures now that there are so few in-person meetings.

No one will ever be able to see that your were under a monitoring program when they look up your license.

You have to give them the contact info for your immediate supervisor so they can send them your quarterly performance evals. They used to give them to us to pass on to our supervisors, but I know they now send them directly to your boss. I guess they caught some people fudging them.

During my restricted period, I took a job at Target making a quarter of what I made in nursing. I hated it, but I did meet the woman I ended up marrying while I worked there, so it wasn't all bad!

Just try to make the best of it. You never know if something good will come out of it. It did for me. Being monitored isn't not fun, but its going to be a part of your life for the next three years whether you like it or not, so better to just accept it now, then spend the next three years miserable and resentful. No reason to be stressed about it though...it really isn't that bad. I know that's easy for me to say since I'm on the other side of it now, but you'll get there too.

Mynxy · Jan 9, 2022

On 10/1/2020 at 6:08 PM, SngsRN said:

Just so I'm clear, you failed a random at work, correct? And your job contacted the BON? Did you get terminated from that job?

I completed PNAP a few years ago, so a lot might have changed since then, but did they make you get a D&A evaluation? I'd be surprised if the person doing the eval would have recommended you for monitoring if you told them that story. Things may have changed though. I don't remember PNAP digging through my medical records to find all of my past medical history and medication I used to be on. Did you tell them you were on Suboxone in the past? From what I remember, PNAP followed the recommendation of the person doing the D&A eval.

As far as the process, just do what you have to do. It sucks, I'm not going to lie, but it's absolutely do-able. It will be tough juggling IOP and work at first, and there will be a lot of days where you'll be doing 2 drug tests, but IOP is usually only 6 weeks. Hopefully you're in a good group...I wasn't so lucky. After IOP, they will probably recommend you do a relapse prevention group once/week, which you will have to do if your counselor recommends it. You'll be in that until your counselor decides you don't need to be anymore. After you're done counseling, the only requirements are making sure you get to your drug screens and filling out your meeting logs and progress notes. I'm not sure what they've been doing about meeting list signatures now that there are so few in-person meetings.

No one will ever be able to see that your were under a monitoring program when they look up your license.

You have to give them the contact info for your immediate supervisor so they can send them your quarterly performance evals. They used to give them to us to pass on to our supervisors, but I know they now send them directly to your boss. I guess they caught some people fudging them.

During my restricted period, I took a job at Target making a quarter of what I made in nursing. I hated it, but I did meet the woman I ended up marrying while I worked there, so it wasn't all bad!

Just try to make the best of it. You never know if something good will come out of it. It did for me. Being monitored isn't not fun, but its going to be a part of your life for the next three years whether you like it or not, so better to just accept it now, then spend the next three years miserable and resentful. No reason to be stressed about it though...it really isn't that bad. I know that's easy for me to say since I'm on the other side of it now, but you'll get there too.

Were you able to work in nursing while in IOP? And did PNAP have to give you some kind of written permission to go back to nursing? The lack of information is what’s most frustrating ?

SngsRN · Jan 9, 2022

2 minutes ago, Mynxy said:

Were you able to work in nursing while in IOP? And did PNAP have to give you some kind of written permission to go back to nursing? The lack of information is what’s most frustrating ?

IOP was only 3 months long, so I think by the time I got everything straightened out with the BON and PNAP, I was already out of IOP. I was out of nursing for 6 months or so total, but that was mostly by choice. PNAP did have to petition the board to allow me to go back to work, but that process didn't take long at all...maybe a week. If you have logistic questions, ask your case manager. Mine was pretty helpful.