Caught diverting,admitted to it, have a lawyer. "Complaiance meeting " is Jan 30th. Recruiters won't assit with job placement. Hospitals won't hire, wehter I explain to them or not. Will any one hire as long as it's A "grey undetermined " area.
Got a decent job offer then rejected so psychologically depressed..
Aside from me admitting guilt to personal use narcotic diversio , the key "complaints listed" are undocumented waste and giving a pain med to early, and the having a narcotic in my pocket which I had to hand off to another nurse due to changing of pt assignment.
I still have no idea what she did with it, as we should of wasted it....
Neither I nor the nurse who wasted pressed thr "confirm waste " button which honestly why the hell is it there. Nor did pharmacy or charge or manager ever bring the issue up...Until after termination via the submitted info to BON.
Been reading stories and they are all so depressing, it's like why bother ,go do something else.
HPRP program may be required which costs..get this 20k a year for 1-3 years. Sooo. 20 ***ing thousand, I could go to a luxurie inpatient rehab for that amount.
I no longer have any desire for drugs and actually avoided giving them at my last job. I found my root cause analysis.
I understand I will be forced monitoring, the expensive lawyer has no ability to decrease the monitoring period through negotiations?
Your lawyer can only help you pick a fair evaluator. The monitoring agencies police themselves. There's no negotiating.
Take any vacation before monitoring so you don't have to worry about wasting time drug testing during your vacation with a monitoring agreement. Go to aa or na now. They like that.
She mentioned there's a few evaluators, and one gives everyone monitoring. But if I get monitoring no matter what, what's it matter?
Like through this profess I'm still waiting to feel like, well wow I'm glad I paid for tissue laywer.. vs wow I just wasted 3k which is how I currently feel
She mentioned there's a few evaluators, and one gives everyone monitoring. But if I get monitoring no matter what, what's it matter?
Like through this profess I'm still waiting to feel like, well wow I'm glad I paid for tissue laywer.. vs wow I just wasted 3k which is how I currently feel
You want an evaluator who says 3 years not 5. You want the least time.
Nah I want 5, it has to make me a better person nurse! Sarcasm. So how do you k.ow who puts what amount of time. You know before meeting? I can't see that as I don't see why anyone would pick a 5 year. Monitor evaluator
Nah I want 5, it has to make me a better person nurse! Sarcasm. So how do you k.ow who puts what amount of time. You know before meeting? I can't see that as I don't see why anyone would pick a 5 year. Monitor evaluator
Your evaluator makes a recommendation for the length of the monitoring agreement. If you disagree you can ask for an independent evaluation. The head of the agency can give you more time. If you mess up time is added. If you miss a test they say it's a positive test. It's really awful.
My advice. Enter HPRP. You've admitted guilt, so to keep your license, the BON will make you go. Think 5 years, not 3. Diversion will be a 5 year requirement. If you enter HPRP now, that's the quicker the 5 years are done and over. If you wait for the investigation to be done which could take up to 1 year and you aren't in HPRP, the clock doesn't start until to begin HPRP so this entire process turns into a 6 year process instead of 5.
Nobody cares at the BON whether you "don't have a desire" to do drugs anymore. Their job is public safety and public safety isn't "taking peoples word for it.'
To keep your license it's automatic that the BON will require HPRP. I promise you....it's automatic. Enroll now. Wait one-year and play the lawyer game for the investigation to be done, and the results will be the same.....they will make you go to HPRP and enter it, so I would get the clock rolling now. You said you already admitted it. No lawyer will get you out of HPRP since you've admitted it.
As for jobs...think community health, dialysis, psych nursing. Keep the lawyer because there is a chance you could be criminally charged. The lawyer will prevent your license from being revoked and that's a good thing, but they will absolutely NOT be able to keep you from being required to enter HPRP.
Agree with all of this. I waited almost 2 years to enroll and I so wish I would have started ASAP. Partially because I would have been done earlier and partially because I managed to get into more trouble during the wait. 🤦♀️I did have a lawyer and still ended up with the same outcome.
You might actually have an easier time finding a job once you enroll because then their ensured you have someone else watching you/accountability and the rules are all spelled out-no wondering if you might have this stipulation or that stipulation that they may or may not be able to accommodate. Hang in there!
You want an evaluator who says 3 years not 5. You want the least time.
Probably varies by state and case but my evaluator actually painted me in a much better light than I would have & recommended 2 years and I got 3 which was the max at the time (I believe it is 5 years now in my state too). My lawyer said I would get 3 years regardless of what the evaluator said and he was right.
A certain number of evaluations in most states are going to be authorized by the BON to do your eval. Your lawyer can help you find which one, but it will be one of the ones authorized by the Board. Your lawyer can definitely negotiate to get you 3 years instead of 5 years in monitoring but that doesn't always work.
The evaluators use certain criteria to diagnose SUD. One of the criteria is your history. It's not just based on your drug test results. Sometimes, evaluators use what is called the SASSI exam, a written questionnaire that is considered one of the gold standards for SUD. It's sometimes given. Additionally, the fact that you admitted diversion is a huge factor in getting the diagnosis. Even if you say you lied or was just kidding when you told your work you diverted, the fact that you lied was simply joking is enough for the evaluator to diagnose you with some kind of mental health condition (which lands you in monitoring). If you tell the evaluator you tried to divert, but wasn't successful, the fact that you tried will land you a SUD diagnosis and in monitoring.
For drug diversion, expect 5 years. Alcohol is different and in cases where the nurse got screwed over and falsely diagnosed with SUD, it can be less also. You will hear about "one nurse" in this state or that state which got only 3 years for drug diversion. These are Rare, very rare, and nearly all states are moving and nearly all have moved to 5 year monitoring agreements for Drug Diversion At Work. If you get only 3 years, consider that a lottery win. Expect 5.
NA, AA, Celebrate Recov, Smart Recovery are all good to get started now, but that doesn't start the clock for you. Being in your states monitoring program starts the clock. Let's say your lawyer helps you get only 3 years, but it takes the BON and your attorney 20 months to finalize your consent. If you start monitoring now, by the time you received your consent order from the BON, you only have 16 months left in monitoring and its all done.
But, let's say it takes 20 months for your lawyer and the BON to finalize your consent order and you start monitoring the day you get your consent order.....then you now have 3 full years left to do. On the consent order, it sometimes can be as quick as 6 months for the lawyer and BON to get it done, but thats very rare. It can sometimes take 2 years, and 1 year to 18 months is about average
Biggest regret I had was putting myself in a situation for the BON to screw me over and I got diagnosed with SUD and don't have it. Outside of that the big one is not starting monitoring early, as in, as soon as I had a bogus complaint. If you read this board and search back 10 years, you will find that's the biggest regret for many nurses. The day you get into trouble, this thing cases anxiety and stress until the final day you no longer check in and test. My regret is that I could be done now and my anxiety and stress would have been about 5 years, but because I waited to start monitoring until my consent order was final it's turned into nearly 6.5 years of stress.
One exception for Not Starting Monitoring Early and actually waiting until the BON consent and your lawyer is done negotiating for you is when they have a weak case against you, because it could possibly be construed as you admitting guilt if you start monitoring early in this example below.
Work is going well and you don't drink at work and you don't divert drugs. You get a complaint against your license one day in the mail that someone has reported at work that you appeared impaired or under the influence of something. This is a rare example (but it does happen) that you fight, lawyer up quick, do NOT enter any monitoring program and flat out refuse to speak to the BON and the only discussion is through your attorney. This is the kind of stuff that sometimes can get completely dropped or simply a "verbal warning" given.
The above is the exception to the rule. For any case where you diverted multiple times, the pixis can likely tell and has technology built in to detect diversion that the pharmacy views every week. Or you admit diversion, or you fell a drug test, etc...in these cases, They Got You. Even if you get a DUI outside of work, they Got You. Call monitoring and get enrolled and get the clock started because You Are Going if you want to keep your license.
A certain number of evaluations in most states are going to be authorized by the BON to do your eval. Your lawyer can help you find which one, but it will be one of the ones authorized by the Board. Your lawyer can definitely negotiate to get you 3 years instead of 5 years in monitoring but that doesn't always work.
The evaluators use certain criteria to diagnose SUD. One of the criteria is your history. It's not just based on your drug test results. Sometimes, evaluators use what is called the SASSI exam, a written questionnaire that is considered one of the gold standards for SUD. It's sometimes given. Additionally, the fact that you admitted diversion is a huge factor in getting the diagnosis. Even if you say you lied or was just kidding when you told your work you diverted, the fact that you lied was simply joking is enough for the evaluator to diagnose you with some kind of mental health condition (which lands you in monitoring). If you tell the evaluator you tried to divert, but wasn't successful, the fact that you tried will land you a SUD diagnosis and in monitoring.
For drug diversion, expect 5 years. Alcohol is different and in cases where the nurse got screwed over and falsely diagnosed with SUD, it can be less also. You will hear about "one nurse" in this state or that state which got only 3 years for drug diversion. These are Rare, very rare, and nearly all states are moving and nearly all have moved to 5 year monitoring agreements for Drug Diversion At Work. If you get only 3 years, consider that a lottery win. Expect 5.
NA, AA, Celebrate Recov, Smart Recovery are all good to get started now, but that doesn't start the clock for you. Being in your states monitoring program starts the clock. Let's say your lawyer helps you get only 3 years, but it takes the BON and your attorney 20 months to finalize your consent. If you start monitoring now, by the time you received your consent order from the BON, you only have 16 months left in monitoring and its all done.
But, let's say it takes 20 months for your lawyer and the BON to finalize your consent order and you start monitoring the day you get your consent order.....then you now have 3 full years left to do. On the consent order, it sometimes can be as quick as 6 months for the lawyer and BON to get it done, but thats very rare. It can sometimes take 2 years, and 1 year to 18 months is about average
I know someone who was in HPRP for diversion and addiction, he did 3 years and said 3 years is the standard in Michigan.
Maybe your lawyer thinks you can avoid a monitoring agreement? That would be great if you could. One person had a DUI in Michigan and only had to monitor for a month. They posted somewhere here.
Everyone is saying apart monitoring early. Why did I get a lawyer? How do I know which evaluator to.choose, like she stayed ahe knows them and which ones to go/not go with.
So after this compliance meeting is it then to late to begin hprp on my own?
Healer555
763 Posts
Your lawyer can only help you pick a fair evaluator. The monitoring agencies police themselves. There's no negotiating.
Take any vacation before monitoring so you don't have to worry about wasting time drug testing during your vacation with a monitoring agreement. Go to aa or na now. They like that.