Newbie to IPN.. Helpppp

catsmeow1972, BSN, RN · Sep 10, 2019

Your eval will likely involve a slew of testing (hair, blood, pee) and a ‘discussion’ with the doc. They will have whatever info IPN sent them which will be the reason for you getting onto the radar of IPN and whatever details you may have told them.

My personal recommendation is to keep your answers short and sweet. Certainly don’t lie but I would not exactly vomit details about your family/home life, etc.

Without knowing why you are there, I will say that them recommending monitoring is, of course, a given (I’ve never seen a person come out of an IPN eval without some type of contract.) Depending on who you are seeing there, a common feature is ‘additional neuropsychiatric testing’ also known as another $3K...cash.....Beyond that, depending on why you are there, of course some ‘recommendation’ for treatment is highly probable.

The two times I was forced through that, each time took all of 2 hours. I found that they (I’m not sure any of the other ‘evaluation’ schemes hooked up with IPN are any different) tend to not pay too much to anything other than what they can twist to justify putting you under contract.

Making the assumption that there is a possible legit diagnosis of SUD and monitoring is in your future, they will take 2-3 weeks to send their report back to IPN. IPN will then instruct you where you may go for the aforementioned ‘further testing’ or ‘treatment.’ Be prepared for those places to not take your insurance. You will quickly find out that this journey is more about money...yours going to them, than any sort of recovery. My personal experience was that I had to jump through those hoops with their (for me, anyway) farce of abusive “treatment” before a contract would even be issued.

Once the contract is issued, For its entire duration, you will log on to a website and ‘check in’ Monday through Friday. That is when you will find out if you must report for a drug test. Mine was pee only, usually about 2x a month at $55 a pop. In the final year (since I guess profits must have been down?) they added blood tests which I think was alcohol. That was an additional $109 and made for the occasional 3rd test of the month. You will also have to attend a Nurse support group. I had a few different ones over the years, due to moving. They ranged from the tolerable/not awful to anxiety inducing torture. That will cost you in the range of $50 a month.

Assuming you wind up with a substance abuse focused contract (may or may not be appropriate, but in spite of what they say, there’s not much individualizations) you will likely be required to attend ‘mutual support group’ meetings, generally AA, etc. You will have a series of quarterly reports to submit...a self report, one from your employer, your psychiatrist and/or therapist if that is an element and the person that runs your NSG. These are all supposed to be done electronically via the same website you check in on every day. As a back up you can fax them. They are all pretty basic little check off sheets.

As for working, the stipulations in the contract that you will likely be subject to (again depending on what got you there) will include a narcotic access restriction which I believe is currently 12 months, no overtime or floating. Your case manager will have to approve whatever job you get before you may start it and said job must know about IPN. There are several threads here on the topic of job hunting and interviewing while saddled with a contract.

You will get a ‘participant manual’ that will outline all this stuff. Read it carefully as you are subject to every last word in it. I found that there tended to be some latitude in the interpretation of their part while we are subject to strict adherence of our end. It’s not a fair process by any stretch of the imagination.

My recommendation? Keep records of EVERYTHING! All correspondence, all receipts from toxicology testing, all reports. Communicate through the website (Affinity) and keep screenshots of your correspondence with your case manager. There is much about this whole process that I would not describe as trustworthy. What is said and what actually happens, in my experience, are two different things. I say this because the only person advocating for you through this, is YOU.

If recovery is what you are needing, you will find those tools in spite of this program. As I alluded to before, and have said in other posts, this program sadly has little to do with recovery (be it SUD) or mental illness assistance and more to do with money and ‘checking all the boxes.’

I wish you well on this journey and know that you can come here for support or to just vent. Wether it’s IPN or any other state’s program, we’ve all been there and many have made it to the other side. It is doable....

owt1225 · Sep 10, 2019

39 minutes ago, catsmeow1972 said:

Thank you for the reply! Is everyone always recommended to inpatient or outpatient treatment, if not then do they take the voluntary hold off of your license to be able to look for work? What is neuropsychiatric testing?

catsmeow1972, BSN, RN · Sep 10, 2019

TheAgain, it depends on why you are there to begin with. In my time I saw people get sentenced to treatment for truly asinine reasons. They seem to go off of what the evaluator says (and IMO, there’s some kickback schemes going on with some of these people). Kind of like the evaluator stands to make some serious bank off of what he/she ‘recommends.’

you will not be able to look for work until the contract is signed/notarized, etc. If they want you to do some treatment program, you will not get your contract until that is done.

The neuropsychiatric testing is simply a bunch of computer based multiple choice BS that I’m not sure even is worth anything other than a payday for whomever you go to for it. Mine was ‘a 3 to 5 day neuropsychiatric evaluation. The place I went (I frankly refused to go back to Gainesville)...oh if I only knew....scammed me mightily. It turned out to be the first week of a cookie cutter rehab stay that lasted almost 6 months. It did more damage to me than good and took several years and a good therapist to get past. I needed help but not that crap. Yikes....

All I’m saying is step lightly and be very discerning. In my experience, most of these evaluators either see addiction in need of treatment in everyone, like they’d claim my cat needs rehab from his nip habit or they have no sense of ethics and have sold out to the god of ?.

owt1225 · Sep 10, 2019

Thank you again.. Now I'm nervous hoping I didn't choose the same evaluator. ??

catsmeow1972, BSN, RN · Sep 10, 2019

Email me at [email protected]

we can talk names. TOS here at AllNurses says we can’t do that in the thread.

owt1225 · Sep 10, 2019

just emailed

mississippiRN71 · Sep 10, 2019

@catsmeow1972 wondering if I get placed in monitoring (which I’m sure I will/ that’s the least they would do I imagine) then will I have to take off work from my current job until my contract is signed and job approved? I have a recovery friendly job since I’m the infection control nurse at a LTC facility. If so, how long does it usually take to get a job approved and contract signed? See it’s taken 3 1/2 years to hear from the board ?

chadprepton, ADN · Sep 10, 2019

2 hours ago, mississippiRN71 said:
@catsmeow1972 wondering if I get placed in monitoring (which I’m sure I will/ that’s the least they would do I imagine) then will I have to take off work from my current job until my contract is signed and job approved? I have a recovery friendly job since I’m the infection control nurse at a LTC facility. If so, how long does it usually take to get a job approved and contract signed? See it’s taken 3 1/2 years to hear from the board ?

That would depend on the state. When I got my monitoring contract I was allowed to keep working at my job.

owt1225 · Sep 23, 2019

Good morning, had my eval last week. Wasn’t too bad I guess. Can anyone tell me how long after your evaluation did ipn contact you with the results and your contract? Thanks

Elisant · Mar 17, 2020

Hello, this conversation/thread was helpful to me. Thank you. I signed a settlement agreement for ipn (two dui’s a year apart). Both parents passed away of two diff illnesses in short timeframe ... was in a bad place. Drank on my days off but it clearly became a problem. Regret it daily and know how severe these mistakes were (no need for lecture/No one knows my remorse and regret more than I do). Got an emergency restriction order... lost everything (Career, apartment, car, driver’s license, probation, fines, jail time, community service, tarnished reputation... you name it). I know it could have been worse! Checked myself into rehab for alcohol abuse. Apparently, it had to be an ipn approved rehab facility (had no idea what that meant at the time). Two months after leaving rehab (and sobriety) voluntarily paid $1,300 for a new ipn eval in hopes of signing a contract and getting back to work. Was told my PEth came back positive just above the cutoff. Had not drank a sip of alcohol. They accused me up and down of lying and having a binge drinking episode. Only tested positive for alcohol btw... never any other substance. Made no sense bc if that were the case I could have simply rescheduled the evaluation to another date that suited me since I was voluntarily doing it!! Finances were thin so I would obviously make sure I would pass. Mind blown. Never issue on the job/ My job wants me back. I don’t trust ipn now. Haven’t worked as a nurse in over a year. Settlement agreement about to be in order and going for another eval. Scared to death that they are shady and something unethical is going on here. I’ve been sober for a year and I feel like they are going to tell me I tested positive for alcohol (when I do test) just to get me to do rehab (AGAIN) but at one of their facilities for moolah. Have insurance but obviously Insurance won’t pay if I’ve been sober for a year. Can’t get a loan. Does anyone have any input or advice on what I can do? Any similar experiences? Any False positive PEth tests?! How did you do inpatient rehab? How did you afford it? I want to right my wrongs and move on with my life as a nurse but it seems like they make it impossible to do so. Any help is appreciated.

Nursingisaworkofheart · Jun 24, 2021

Hi there this has been very helpful. Thank you. Asking for a "friend" who lives in FL, if anyone can help we'd appreciate it. He tested positive for marijuana in a pre employment screening. Was told to call IPN to self report since they're obligated to report this to the Board and was disqualified from the position. He ends up reporting to IPN out of fear of losing license. Now he has 30 days to schedule an evaluation. A little bit of back history, my friend lost his dad in January was taking CBD oils to help with depression and insomnia, but wasn't aware screening could come back positive for marijuana, he is now feeling better, it was an isolated incident, there is no addiction problem. Also, friend is unemployed currently.. Question is, what happens if my friend decides not to go through with this evaluation and contract? What if he just ignores all of it and keeps on moving? Say they report him to the Board, does anyone know what will happen to his license then? Additionally, he is being offered a job, can he accept?