pre employment drug screen help

sissiesmama, ASN, RN · Oct 18, 2015

Hi - I don't know about Hermann - we live in Louisiana - I took a pre-employment DS and had a script for Halcion and hydrocodone (I had a root canal a few days prior and my pre-employment physical) and I wondered about that too. I brought my script bottles with me. They made a note of it before I gave the specimen.

Some places say to wait until after the specimen and they will call u to verify.

I doubt they would think a person was weak or something if someone were taking those meds. (I hope not at least)

I know I prob wasn't much help but thought I would give u my experience.

Good luck!

Anne, RNC

Postpartum RN · Oct 18, 2015

I think that your drug screen specific results are not given to your manager. The employee health dept handles it and only tells them if you passed or failed. If you have drugs in your system and show them a prescription for them, then you should be a pass. The manager should not be aware of your prescriptions. This is what I was told.

Ozymandia · Oct 18, 2015

I hope so.ive seen people post that hospitals consider nurses who take benzodiazepines a risk. As in impaired. I don't want to stop taking my meds. I'm great at my job. I've got a family and I'm in school. But I don't want to get shunned bc a hospital doesn't want to hire nurses who take xanax

jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B · Oct 18, 2015

Any hospital can choose to hire you, or not. Any hospital can choose to keep you employed or not. For any reason or no reason.

I would get some legal advice regarding the test, that will come back positive, and what that will mean going forward. You do not want a report to the BON regarding this.

Just be sure that you cross t's and dot i's.

Best wishes

Guest219794 · Oct 18, 2015

Any hospital can choose to hire you, or not. Any hospital can choose to keep you employed or not. For any reason or no reason.

Not really. There are certain things they are not allowed to hold against you. Of course proving they used an inappropriate factor in decision making is pretty tricky.
I would get some legal advice regarding the test, that will come back positive, and what that will mean going forward. You do not want a report to the BON regarding this.
People seem really terrified of the BON- Do employers actually report nurses who take medications as prescribed? When they do, typically speaking, how does the BON react to a person taking prescribed medications? The BON must have a whole lot of time on their hands to get involved with a Xanax prescription.
Just be sure that you cross t's and dot i's.
Yup. Bring your prescriptions. Pee in a cup.
Best wishes

Why put any energy into worrying about something not in your control? You have done nothing wrong. If you are not hired, you will never know why. Presumably you take these medications because you need it, so how will trying to predict the actions of faceless HR staff help. And for goodness sake, don't fret about the Big Bad Wolf (BON).

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Oct 19, 2015

Why would anyone report a candidate to the BON if they have a valid prescription? There may be facilities who have a policy against hiring nurses who take benzos, but that is not a reportable reason as there is in nothing in any Nurse Practice Act I know of which states nurses may not take certain prescription meds. If the nurse is working while impaired, that's a totally different animal than simply having and appropriately using prescription meds.

Trinx · Oct 19, 2015

When I took my first hospital job, I'd forgotten that I'd been given a script for a low-dose narcotic (I don't remember which one - this was before nursing school). I remembered when they handed me a cup that I'd taken one of the pills a couple days before (didn't continue them, didn't need them). I told the person that I'd taken one such pill and had a script, but forgot it at home. We went ahead and did the test. It didn't show. Had it shown, I would have just had to return with the prescription.

MunoRN, RN · Oct 19, 2015

Why would anyone report a candidate to the BON if they have a valid prescription? There may be facilities who have a policy against hiring nurses who take benzos, but that is not a reportable reason as there is in nothing in any Nurse Practice Act I know of which states nurses may not take certain prescription meds. If the nurse is working while impaired, that's a totally different animal than simply having and appropriately using prescription meds.

So long as the nurse reports such use as required by an employer they are usually fine, it's when they fail to notify their employer, often because the mistakenly believe they cant be required to legally (they can) that a BON has been known to take disciplinary action.

This is pretty similar to my state BON's position, although Louisiana appears to put a bit more faith in a nurse's ability to self-assess impairment, it's basically the same idea:

("Safety-sensitive" usually refers to most direct care nursing positions)

Therefore, safety sensitive employees may be subject to discipline for failure to inform the appropriate supervisor regarding the use of
prescription drugs. Additionally, employers may choose to restrict the use of all mood-altering chemicals
when performing in a safety sensitive position or allow nurses taking prescribed medications to only work
in positions which are not deemed safety sensitive.

https://www.lsbn.state.la.us/Portals/1/Documents/DeclaratoryStatements/Declerat20.pdf

noyesno, MSN, APRN, NP · Oct 20, 2015

No. No.

A doctor will call you after you "fail" the drug screen and ask what pharmacy you go to or for your prescribing physician's contact information. He/she will verify your scripts and you will be fine. If you want to avoid this hassle, don't take your drugs for a day or two and you'll pass, no problem.

Ozymandia · Oct 20, 2015

Has anyone ever heard of denying emoymwnt over xanax? Oh and icing on the cake. I have a congenital problem with my knees. The groove my patella sits in is shallow

ligaments are loose. I had chronic recurrjngI have chronic recurring patellar subluxation. It's congenitAl. The groove my patella sits in is shallow. Ligaments are loose. Once or twice. Year I step on my foot wrong, or slip, and my patella (right and left do it just one at a time) will dislocate and pop out laterally making me fall. It gets stuck like this. I have to straighten my leg while pushing the knee cap back into it's place. It's very disturbing to see. It's getting harder to realign it and I can hear the bone scraping bone when I do. So I took mg prescribed vicodin and prescribed soma the day it happened and again tonight.

I'm not a drug abuser. But I do have the prescriptions I need if I am in pain, or anxious.guess that will

Be showing up to.

I've been on adderall and xanax 9 years.

Since meeting my doc and getting on my regimen I became a CNA, CMA, LVN ( 2nd in my class), RN, BSN, and I'm apying for Grad school

Now. I don't get impaired by xanax. Not like people think. I've never that a sentinel event and only 1 med error in 3 years I gave I ran instead of 2 modafinil

Bc the stock was labeled wrong.

Ozymandia · Oct 20, 2015

Is it ok to get print outs from the pharmacy instead of pulling out 4 pill bottles?