Positive pre-employment drug screen! What will happen?

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Hello, I am a licensed RN for Ohio and California. Have been working travel in California for 6 months. I applied for a new agency to start per diem work in California and just found out I tested positive foramphetamines on my pre-employment drug screen. At first I was confused and told the MRO I have no idea why that would show up and the only meds I take are allergy and sinus meds. Then it dawned on me my teenager takes Adderall and she also takes some of the same allergy meds as me as well. Long story short I am now worried that our meds could have gotten mixed up or a day I asked her to hand me one of our Zyrtec it might have been one of her meds, I don’t know. I keep all of our household meds in the same cabinet and being a single parent of four sometimes I’m handing everyone’s Meds out for the morning or she is. I was told by a friend that this might get me reported to the BON and I may lose my license over this. Can anyone give me advice on what may or may not happen? The MRO states that her job was just to report to the company and it’s at their discretion of what happens next. The recruiter for new agency says she has not heard anything yet and doesn’t know what happens in this situation that she thinks it might be I just reapply in 6 months.

“I feel like nursing is becoming a police state and we give up all our rights to privacy just to have a job. “

YES!!!!!!! THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT IT’S BECOME!!!!!!! Makes me sick!!!!

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My last pre-employment test showed a positive for amphetamines as well. They did it on the spot, in front of me. Turns out the Zoloft I was on causes false positives for amphetamines. They sent it off for Gc/MS testing and was cleared.

If it is a reputable lab, they will have done GC/MS testing to confirm the initial positive. They call that a confirmed positive. Call The MRO back and ask if it was confirmed. If it was a split test (did they pour your urine sample into 2 different little containers that you had to initial the strip they sealed it with?) you can ask them to send the second container to another lab in a different state to re-confirm the results. That will cost about 125$ out of your pocket. But it is COMPLETELY WORTH IT if you believe this was a false positive!

It is worth it to protect your license at this point. Forget about the job, you likely won’t get that. But unless the agency you applied to is a small rinky- dink agency, who’s HR doesn’t know any better, they are mandated to report you to the BON. The person from Canada was incorrect in their assumption that you must be engaged in patient care in order for the BON to take action. That is why people who got DUI’s YEARS before ever entering into nursing school will graduate with a limited license that has stipulations on it; or how many people who smoked weed at a weekend party and test positive for a pre-employment or random UDS end up under contract. California and Ohio BON’s are quite strict and will both likely put your license on a suspension followed by 2-5 years in ‘monitoring land’ (visit the nurses recovery forum for an idea).

I do hope it is a medication that resulted in the false positive, because to be honest, I have used that exact same ‘excuse ‘ of thinking I accidentally took my daughters meds- when I knew it wasn’t true. The test was negative, thankfully, but the BON won’t believe that for a second.

The best thing you can do for yourself is call the agency to find out if they turned you into the BON and then run to a lawyer specializing in nursing licensure. That might be the only thing that saves your license (or help to minimize your ‘punishment ‘).

please come back and update us, it might be very helpful to another nurse going through similar circumstances. Good luck!!

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Specializes in Practice educator.

I'm glad I live somewhere that does not screen its staff, I appreciate private companies have issues but jeez man, treat staff like adults.

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Specializes in ICU.

I have a new employer now since I moved, and this employer has recently instituted random drug testing. That's all fine and whatever. I take synthroid. Yay. However, working in trauma and surgery, I've watched multiple patients test positive on a UDS just because they took allegra, sudafed, wellbutrin, etc. Because of my new employer, I tend to stay away from cold medicine, allergy meds, and anything else. I feel like I can't take so much as an aspirin now.

For you, I hope they do a GC/MS test to figure out what happened. A previous poster mentioned it. Usually, when I have been drug tested, they take 2 samples. One for immediate results and one to send off to an independent lab in case of a positive.

I can't tell you what will happen next, but I hope you get this cleared up and everything works out for you.

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you mentioned allergy/sinus meds. Certain types are sold from the pharmacy desk and you have to show ID. I think because theres an ingredient in it that they use in making meth (along with lots of other gunk)

I could be wrong but maybe thats why it showed positive? I would ask for a re-test or for them to have the lab test it

Good luck OP

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So what was the outcome?

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“I feel like nursing is becoming a police state and we give up all our rights to privacy just to have a job. “

YES!!!!!!! THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT IT’S BECOME!!!!!!! Makes me sick!!!!

Well you do petition the state for the opportunity to serve the public at it's pleasure with reservations... You know the whole application, hundreds of dollars, and taking a test thing?

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"Accidentally" taking the wrong med is just like the excuse of "I fell and it accidentally got stuck in my butt!"

Not the best excuse but likely explained by one of the several other theories posted here.

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Specializes in RN BS.
On 8/7/2019 at 2:28 PM, Asystole RN said:

"Accidentally" taking the wrong med is just like the excuse of "I fell and it accidentally got stuck in my butt!"

Not the best excuse but likely explained by one of the several other theories posted here.

Lol ... What.

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Would you kindly update the outcome of this? Ca RN here looking for guidance 

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