BigRed23

What is the paperwork you signed for PNAP weeks ago? Is it your pnap contract? If so, it tells you exactly what you can and cannot do. If it is not the contract, you should be expecting to receive that soon. I was first contacted by pnap at the end of july, was evaluated in august, and have a contract dated the first week of august. So it does not usually take forever to get in-- it is actually a pretty quick process. It does take a long time for the nursing board to sign their part of the contract, about 6 months. But as soon as a contract is signed with pnap, you need to follow all of the instructions. Normally this includes a period of not being allowed to work at all, a couple of months at the very least. Also you are not permitted to work in any kind of icu, including a coronary care unit, until approved by your case manager. My advice would be to contact your pnap case manager to discuss more in detail the entire timeline of what to expect, and what is expected of you.

What do you mean, Aspiration Precautions?

First of all--Do not miss your drug screen! Call your IOP and tell them you will be late, or tell them you will not be there tonight. You ARE allowed to have a few absences. Make sure you call though, don't just not show up. OR go to IOP and then drive the 40 minutes to the place open all hours. Yes it is an inconvenience. Yes it sucks. The whole thing sucks. Don't let an extra inconvenience screw this up for you again. There's bound to be a lot more of them. It's part of the game. If you want to win the prize (your freedom), you have to do whatever it takes to play to win.

No, she isn't. Nobody else in my group has who I have either, so they got stepped down even though they weren't doing the steps and some never got a sponsor. So you might be good with your case manager. I take my recovery seriously and haven't had any issues with them. I guess I momentarily forgot that part of this is a game to them. I'll do what I need to and keep playing.

PA, same as you.

Hey guys This is kind of related to the topic of success rates....sooo... Just needed to vent for a minute to some people that understand. So I'm in my monitoring program since August 2016. The usual requirement here is to attend the nurse support group weekly for 1 year, and then get stepped down to every other week. So I was recently told that after speaking with my case manager, that my therapist cannot step me down to every other week, although my year of weekly is over. She says this is coming from my case manager, and all the case managers do it how ever they want. At this point in my recovery, I have a sponsor but I have been honest in group and have said that I only speak to her once a week at a meeting and I am not actively working the 12 steps. So I am told that this is the rationale behind not stepping me down to every other week group- because I don't speak to my sponsor often enough and I'm not working the steps. She said, well you know, all these people are dying out here, and we just don't want that to happen, and we want you to continue your recovery after monitoring is over, and we don't want to see you back here, blah blah blah. Basically saying the only way to not relapse was to have an active sponsor and work the steps. So I was pretty jacked when she told me this. First of all, I pay $25 out of pocket every week for this group. So that's $50 extra that I was planning on saving a month, which maybe isn't a lot to some people, but where I am currently working (and signed a 2 year contract), I am being called off once a week, so I'm only working 24hrs a week on average. So that $50 would help. 2nd, it's pretty discouraging when I have done every single thing asked of me and required of me per this program. So for them to suddenly say, oh yeah you're doing okay, buttt sorry, not good enough...is kind of a kick in the junk. Like, you're telling me my recovery and progress aren't good enough for you? Screw you people, my life is better than it's ever been. And my life is already controlled in almost all aspects by your monitoring program, and now you want to "order" me to work the steps? Just kinda seems like bull crap to me at this point. So now I have to either get a new sponsor or talk more to my current one, and work on the 12 steps...or I'm stuck indefinitely attending my Nurses group every week. Anyway, pretty trivial stuff, I know. Just had me feeling some kinda way and needed to put it out there.

Hi stickybun, Like you, this was one of my main concerns when getting close to returning to work. Before monitoring, I also had only worked in a hospital, where lunch breaks were non-existent and coming in late wouldn't fly for any reason. So I didn't really believe that I could find a job where that would be okay. To avoid the worry and hassle, I found a job working only night shift. Also, I know someone who just started back to work, and she will be working daylight. I guess where we live there is testing place that stays open until midnight; however it is like 60miles away. So ask around, ask your case manager or your Nurses group if you have one- see if there is a testing place anywhere that stays open late, ask what their recommendations are...or look for night shift jobs :)

"Over 1 Billion Served"

Hi IrishCMSRN Sorry to hear about that crap news. Is that the final word from PHMP, extending you for 3 years?? That is really tough, but I know you can do it. I've been in PNAP since August 2016, so I still have almost my 3 entire years to go. There's a couple people I know that had their contracts extended, and they are doing really well. Let me know if I can help you out in any way.

Hi guys! Long time reader, first time poster. Ha! Just had a thought today and wanted to share. It appears that expenses related to our monitoring programs are tax-deductible. It would be entered in the section pertaining to expenses for professional/medical licensure. Makes sense...Hopefully this helps us a little bit! Here the question was asked and answered pretty straight-forwardly by an Intuit TurboTax representative (hope this link works): I'm a medical professional enrolled in a drug monitoring program... - TurboTax Support