Nurse with bipolar disorder or adhd?

[nursedudekl]

Have you had job difficulties? Reported? Board action? I have been through much with this and would be happy to help anyone that wants information. Presently licensed and attending grad school with the above illnesses.

[bargainhound, RN]

I think you have proven you are doing well as a nurse.

If and when any issues arise regarding patient care or safety, then it should be addressed, just as any other nurse, not because of bipolar.

You are showing you are mindful of keeping control, making sure your meds are working.

As long as you maintain and accept feedback from a trusted friend, family member, etc. I think it is none of anyone's business.

[stevieg]

hi

im currently in my 3rd year doing bsc degree in mental health nursing and have just been diagnosed with bp ii disorder and from what my employer says and personal tutor at university state I am fine as long as I am fit to practice. here in the uk we are governed by the nursing and midwifery council who cannot discriminate against nurse with physical and mental conditions as long as this is treated. untreated conditions will impair fitness to practice. one year to go however I know i have been outstanding with regards to placcement feedback and top grades though i do worry about the stigma within the workplace which may impair job prospects. even though i feel i am a more understanding, passionate and empathetic nurse. good luck !

[lamazeteacher]

If you change the word "stigma" to fear, it's more accurate about those who seem phobic about mental diseases. They seem to have am awareness of people who were not predictable and scared them at some point, kind of like aggressive canines, who are actually sweet natured.

Being a person who is successfully treated for a mental illness, makes you a positive role model of what that really is, for others. We all carry genetic information about past experiences that not only we ourselves have experienced, but also our parents and their long gone close family members. That makes for a lot of noise in our heads. That's somewhat like a commercial on TV I saw about a couple in bed with their lawyers with them. I forget what it was about, but the lawyers interpreted what the couple felt, and when one of them suggested sex, the lawyer for the other one said, quite comically, "Not in the mood".

Those of us afflicted with mental disease(s), need to get the others "out of our beds", shoo them out of our minds, and show that we have the ability to make rational decisions. It's the ability (or not) to do that, that is the "temperature" of someone with that type of illness. When we don't do so well, our decision making abilities become quite difficult. Others catch on to that, and worry about us being able to perform in our jobs. So we just have to do a bit more thinking, before drawing conclusions about what we have to decide.....

As far as Texas is concerned, with President Obama's emphasis on mental disease being subject to the same protocols as physical disease, that mentoring, etc. will have to come to an end. What BS!! They would have to do that for anyone recovering from an appendectomy, or the flu..... Does anyone see a whistle blower there?

As nurses, we know the dangers of not taking our meds, better than others, and anyone who stops taking what works, is in for trouble. Never let yourself be put in that situation! I once had to go several days without my effexor (which I'd been on for 25 years), when it was only available in a slightly different generic form and became "venlafaxine" (which I found more effective). The pharmacist got angry when I wrote "venlafaxine" on the prescription (I had carefully pronounced that name, but he wasn't getting it), and he told my doctor (an internist) that I had altered his prescription.....

Wrong move, on my part to do that in front of the pharmacist. He wouldn't tell the doctor exactly what I had done, so that phobic cretin wouldn't OK "venlafaxine". It was late on a Friday and the doctor was off for the weekend. By the time Monday came around, I was frantic, angry, crying buckets, as I "wasn't myself", and ticked off the doctor's "nurse" in the office, so he discharged me from his care.

That was the result of poor planning and dealing with care providers who aren't with the mental health program! I really should have had a psychiatrist, but I couldn't afford to see one, regularly.

[BeOne77]

Has anyone had to deal with the Pennsylvania Board of Nursing and the topic of mental illness?

[bas2967]

Reading all the coments has brought tears of joy to my eyes...I am not alone! I have been so worried that when nursing school starts in august that I will be rejected when they find out that I take 900mg of lithium a day. The lithium keeps me stable and I am able to focus on the tasks at hand rather than have constant random thoughts overloading my brain. My partner is very supportive and he encourages me to take my meds and stay in school. I will not allow bipolar disorder to keep me from my goals again. God bless all nurses!