New to Alabama VDAP

Nurses Recovery

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Hi, I'm Ryan. I got caught with some morphine in my pocket a few months back and here I am. They are now also trying to get me on some charting errors "because I now gave them doubt". It was a first time thing, though I do take norco at home for a back injury from college (prescribed). It appears my own medical issues are only raising red flags here. Anyway, my biggest concern is if anyone has been able to do outpatient treatment here without any inpatient? It seems all the approved providers are linked to a center, which thanks to you guys, is just awesome *note the sarcasm*. I have two young kids at home, and yeah, I already feel bad enough about my behavior, but it would be nice to not have to go somewhere for who knows how long. Also, any other insight to how decent or awful this program is would be appreciated. Just committed today for the sake of the license.

Thank you for responding. You are one of the first Al people I've read. Which makes this incredibly overwhelming! 10 weeks, wow! Do you mind me asking how much your eval was? Did your insurance pay any of it? I read on a forum evals can be anywhere from 2-3k but it seems the majority of the people in here paid 500-1k. I'm glad everything is going well now. How long before you were cleared to return to work and was it bad trying to find a job? Sorry for the overload, still can't seem to wrap my head around where I am.

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Specializes in Clinical Leadership, Staff Development, Education.

I paid 350.00 when I was admitted and insurance paid the first 21 days. The cost for healthcare track (Extended Care Facility) was significant and I paid around $17,000 out of pocket. They give you information on medical loan and can divide payments up during your stay. My husband and I were creative and used savings, some 401K and sold our older "back up car". I was discharged on a Friday and on Monday started IOP intensive outpatient. I do not know if anyone that was not required to attend IOP. Initial recommendation was 4 weeks, but my insurance only covered 1 week. I completed 2 of the 4 weeks. I signed monitoring contract with the board of nursing very soon after IOP ended and began job search. Overall, it was 12 weeks before I signed contract and another 1.5 weeks until I had a job offer.

If you are unable to afford inpatient at Bradford, you will be referred to a sober living community, but will first complete 30 days at state rehab facility in Guntersville. You will then be required to complete 6 months in sober living. Sober living is designed for individuals high risk for relapse and home environment does not support recovery. After a period of time, you will get a job, but it will not be in nursing.

During my stay- some nurses were required 8-12 weeks inpatient- depending on situation/history ect.

One nurse stayed only 5 weeks, but was required to attend IOP for an extensive period of time.

It is very overwhelming at first. Despite the financial hardship, my life is sooooo much better now and my relationships are deeper. When I first went in, it was about not losing my license. As time went on, it was about getting my life back.

Monitoring contracts are typically for 5 years and can apply for early release at 3 years. Required 3 recovery meetings a week, 1 continuing care meeting a week (for two years), counseling visits ect.

In ECP, you stay in a cottage (it is like a nice house). 16 people per cottage. Meals are prepared in cottage kitchen, washer dryer ect. There are times I miss my cottage.

I have written 2 articles about my rock bottom for allnurses. Just click on my name to see my articles- Confronting Jane Part 1 and Confronting Jane Part 2.

I hope this helps.

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I must admit I haven't read fully all the responses. I did want to chime in that although lots of people on this board were required to do inpatient, I was only required to do outpatient, and I live near a very large metropolitan area where inpatient options were available so there is hope for you to get away without inpatient. My assessment was $350, and only lasted a few hours, not several days like others have had to do, then my IOP was covered by my insurance (luckily I was already covered by my husband's employee offered health insurance since I was fired from my job), and my IOP (intensive outpatient therapy) was 8 weeks. I was recommended by my IOP providers to continue with "after care" which would have been once a week but tpapn (Texas) didn't require that so I declined!

GOOD LUCK!!

Please recognize that almost all of us initially decide to quit nursing once we get caught and are forced into these monitoring programs, but if you just take it one day at a time you will eventually realize you can do it! I'm done! I'm very lucky that Texas only requires 3 years, as many states require 5, but I finished last month and now my license is free and clear and I'm so glad I stuck it out, it's embarrassing, humiliating and expensive, but in the end, nursing is so versatile that it will be worth it to know for the rest of my life I can always find a job as a nurse somewhere.

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Thank you so much. Congrats! And yes, very lucky indeed! All the board approved providers that I have called require a multi day assessment but I'm praying I can somehow get by without having to do inpatient still. I'm looking into traveling to Ga perhaps since there are 3 facilities there that hopefully aren't in the programs pocket. Thank you for the encouragement. It certainly feels pretty low down here. But agree that one day having my license clean will be worth it.

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Specializes in Clinical Leadership, Staff Development, Education.

If the approved programs have a "Professional License" program specifically for licensed individuals- then will most likely have same guidelines as in-state facilities- but definitely worth looking into.

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Specializes in OR.

My experience with 'professionals programs' is that they are nothing but a thinly veiled method of sucking you dry for money. If a person is in need of rehab, how are they any different than anyone else if they happen to have some kind of license. I should think that if a person truly needs to be in an inpatient rehab program, one needs to be focusing on themselves and the career stuff is secondary.

I also think it's very convenient that these place that have 'professionals programs' and the monitoring programs are in each other's pockets, AND tend to not take insurance. Hmmm....nothing like catering to a client set that is likely to have money and a lot to lose. For what it's worth, I think, when it comes to monitoring programs, inpatient rehab is wayyyyyy overused.

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Specializes in Clinical Leadership, Staff Development, Education.

My insurance paid initially- as I was going through detox- total 19 days. Afterwards, it was out of pocket. You can go ahead and call your insurance company to determine benefit coverage.

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Breathe...you're in the absolute worst part of the process now, the waiting and worrying and the fear of the unknown.

As someone who just got out of inpatient in April, let me advise you to go somewhere that is a 28 day program, even if it's far from home. I was clean for over a month and a half by the time TNPAP got through the process of reviewing my evaluation and recommending inpatient tx. Therefore my insurance wouldn't pay for rehab since I didn't meet their criteria. I was stuck. Tnpap required me to meet their orders, but it was all out of pocket. If I wanted to retain my license I had no choice. So I took great care to choose a place where it was only 4 weeks as opposed to 10-12.

Bradford was on my 'approved' list and it was going to cost me $40k OOP. Anywhere that says they have a 'healthcare professionals' program is going to be a minimum two or three month stay. I thought that it was unfair that I was penalized for not actively using and not needing detox. If I had lied on my assessment and made things seem worse then my insurance would have paid. As it was, I did 28 days of inpatient and 2 weeks of IOP. I feel extremely lucky.

I have tried to send you a pm with the name of the inpatient place I went. This is a throwaway acct, of course, so it won't let me. I'm not sure if it's against the rules or not, but see if you can go to Focus Healthcare in Chattanooga.

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