Uncle-JoJo

I've had great success with home health in TPAPN; however, whether or not you can apply for job depends on your case manager.

In the Texas you're not required to report to the board of nursing if no practice violation occurred; however, it's mandatory we make referrals to TPAPN. Added: I agree with what KyBeagle said. Even the most incredible criminal attorneys often don't have experience with boards of nursing (nursing, MD, etc). You need an attorney who's specialty is working with your state board of nursing. You don't necessarily need to retain them because there is little they can do to negotiate terms with TPAPN, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to prepare yourself.

It's true. Most states like Texas have boards of nursing that like to say they have a confidential program to help nurses with recovery, but they often make the order publicly available. Every nurse and employer in your future that are interested in looking up your past will have access to knowing you were in recovery.

Congrats. It's not easy to do what you did. When I finished my probation with TPAPN the first thing I wanted to do was finally wash my mouth with Cool Mint Listerine.

They'll report you to the board of nursing and you'll have to serve several years in a probation program (aka: peer assistant program, alternative to discipline, etc). Get an attorney to discuss your case as they may be able to negotiate the board of nursing to offer you a confidential order. The order requiring you to go in, and why they required you to go in, will only be visible to the board of nursing and not publicized to the whole world like they enjoy doing to Texas nurses.

Gotcha. Well, hopefully your attorney can negotiate the best possible outcome which is a confidential order requiring you to participate in your states monitoring program for a few years. Keep us posted.

I missed a check-in once in the three years I was in TPAPN and they never even mentioned it to me. I also didn't notice any increase in testing. Their participation agreement doesn't say they'll do anything if you miss a check-in; however, if they see a habit they'll bump up the frequency which costs you tons of extra money and time. Make sure you set it on your phone as a reminder if you haven't already and make the reminder pop up at a time that is typically before you wake up. Added: I'd encourage not to send a message to case manager like "I'm so sorry." This will only draw attention to you. Only respond if they reach out to you, otherwise just let it go.

I can't stress enough that you need to avoid providing any information about how you collected your pain medication. In many cases, HIPAA laws go out the window when the pattern of collection involved illegal activity. Also, I'm glad your feeling better.

Is your attorney concerned about your mental health related admissions because you didn't report them to the board of nursing when you applied for licensure?

IPN forbidding you to practice in another state doesn't mean you need reciprocity to move into a state that's within the eNLC. You just need to contact IPN and let them know you'd like to move to Texas and see if they'll allow you to participate in an "out-of-state" contract with TPAPN. IPN will then send quarterly reports to TPAPN to let them know you're meeting all of IPN's requirements.

Did you just get out of TPAPN or are you about to go into it?

Unless you're not including something significant, I can't see why anyone would report you to TPAPN.

TPAPN isn't that bad from what I've heard, and my case management team was nothing but incredible.

The only person in my city that was on the TPAPN approved list had only one receptionist and told me she hadn't heard of TPAPN. After she figured out what TPAPN was, she said the therapist would charge $600. That $600 eval lasted ten minutes. The therapist was holding a lap dog while typing on her computer and only made eye contact with me once. I'm not even sure what she told TPAPN. I hope your experience was better than mine.

I'd go on with life and apply for your new license. If you truly didn't divert then you shouldn't have anything to fear about a new license. However, do know that if you aren't 100% honest with yourself, us, our them, it will come out one way or another. Good luck in your new state.

You shouldn't have any problems reactivating it should you move back. If it costs nothing in an expired state, leave it alone.

I ran into this problem when the whole ENLC kicked in because I was working between Texas and New Mexico during the time that New Mexico wasn't going to join new compact. You can only have one active license between compact states just like the letter said. It's not a threat, it's just how they do things. Put your old state as inactive so you're not paying for it anymore. For more information, go to this link: Original NLC | NCSBN Look at the PDF that's called "Moving to Other States" for details on "Compact to Compact". Hope that's helpful.

Forgive me if I missed it, but did you admit that you diverted?

There's no good answer to this. You're not being dishonest if you don't notify your case manager. If it was really one cracker and you noticed it on the second, I'd just wait to see what the tests show. In the three years I was in TPAPN I once at a poppy seed bagel when visiting my nephew in Chicago. I was tested in Chicago the next day and the test was negative. The bagel was one of those ones that was so heavy with poppy seeds that you couldn't see the bread on top. I've always believed that "letting them know just in case" in these monitoring programs is similar to putting a police lights on your account. If you get a positive from one cracker I'd be shocked at the sensitivity of the testing. There is no right answer, but I honestly wouldn't raise suspicion towards your name/profile unless the results are unfavorable. Even then, the numbers would have to be so insignificant and low it would possibly be seen as an incidental exposure. Keep us posted.

This happened to me a time or two. It's not unusual.

If you successfully complete TPAPN your license should appear as though nothing happened. If you're still in monitoring TPAPN required you only work in Texas until complete. However, if you're done it has zero implications and you can practice wherever you're compact allows. Also, you don't have to repeat monitoring if you go through reciprocity for another states license that isn't compact. You only have to continue monitoring in another state (or sometimes start over) if you're still in monitoring.

Whether you quit or get fired is irrelevant. They can report you regardless. Get a lawyers advice as to how you should proceed and don't make any anxious decisions, like quiting, until you've acquired sound legal advice. When I was in my interview where they tried to drill questions from me I told them "I can't answer questions like that until I've consulted my lawyer." They left it alone and moved on. It's a completely acceptable answer. Going forward, any questions that come your way will most likely be just to build their reportable case against you. Unless you're sitting in front of the judge, don't answer anything.

I'd make sure you have names of those involved should it come up later and don't speak a word of it to your program unless they ask. The feeling I got from my three years in monitoring is that all mistakes, regardless of who caused it, raises suspicion against you.

Five years hppy? I couldn't imagine doing five. Good job getting that over with. Thank you for the feedback.

Congrats on almost being done. Be super careful while you're on this trip. Being in the presence of people close to you who drink can be quite the motivator.