TouchingAllOceans

In the same boat as you. New RN, new to dialysis, about a month and a half without a preceptor on the floor. During turnover I want to jump out the window. They say it takes time to feel comfortable. As other posters have said, we must be patient with ourselves. Sometimes when I'm waiting for a blood pressure to take I close my eyes, deep breathe, and try to remember what someone told me: This place isn't machinery, it's people's lives. So if you're going slow - you're protecting others - and yourself. It'll be okay.

You're awesome - thanks for an uplifting post in a sea of ones that invoke anxiety and "what ifs". Congratulations on getting your ATT with no restrictions and good luck on your NCLEX.

Juice is pretty good (OJ, grapefruit) to be sure your urine isn't see through. 2 hours before.

You enter the Peer program and immediately "cease all nursing practice". In order to return to work you need 4 consecutive negative drug screens, a relapse prevention plan, and a green light from your counselor. After this, you meet in front of a committee and request your work privileges. Direct answer to your question: Yes, it is supervised practice. You recruit 2 "supervising" nurses- one of which always be clocked in when you are clocked in and they must submit monthly reports on you. There are other limitations to what you can do - the first 6 months you don't touch narcotics. If you have no problems, you are allowed to pass them after this period. Other limitations include no night work, no overtime, no 8+ hours a day…. the list probably goes on, but I'm in the middle of this phase (currently waiting to meet in front of a committee), and will get more details next month.

I'm in the Peer program in Oklahoma - and wanted to travel to California when I'm out. After all I've read here - it doesn't seem to matter to CA BON how much work you've put in or how much time has lapsed since your criminal convictions (I too, have a DUI), they will STILL make you go through their monitoring program. Would you say this is true? I'm sorry to hear you got a false + (god, my worse fear). Condemning of the innocent seems to be the running theme of these "recovery" programs. Recovery is supposed to build your self-esteem, not erode it further by false accusations.

Nathan , I, too, am in Oklahoma's PAP. I voluntarily reported for alcohol abuse . I should be done in about 2 years and I, like you , would love to travel to another state when I'm done . At the time I signed my contract, it appeared that entering voluntarily = no forever red mark on your license - but it gets clearer that this just isn't the case. I've looked at 5 applications for endorsement to other states and some of them want to know about a "stipulated" or "limited" license. Now , I would have to clarify what this means and if the PAP is a limitation to practice or if the contract we signed is a "stipulation" - hopefully it isn't. Reading another thread on this website, it seems as if the states most likely to make you go through monitoring again are California, Texas, and Florida. I have yet to read any good ending stories about how the board in the subsequent state a nurse applied to actually recognized the first recovery program they completed . It's super disheartening. On a positive note , hearing that it shouldn't be a problem from NSG facilitators and PAP employees is reassuring . I pray that self-reporting and honesty continue to bring miracles for us . Keep us posted and feel free to message me - I too will let you know if I find out any details of what the future could possibly hold for us. -Sarah