smilemk0

Yes - I am very aware of how it all works and I have multiple graduate degrees (CRNA and EMBA) - I have been working towards this for years and now have people who will listen and have access to much higher levels than the boards. There are actually just as many complaints to Boards of Medicine as Nursing and JLAP - less financial complaints because they are not held out of their jobs typically the way nurses are. The studies do not support the monitoring terms that were adopted as "standard" from a study done by those financially affiliated with PHPs back in the mid-2000s and very poorly done (no controls, bias samples, etc.), kind of like the autism study ha. No one has put up the fight I am mounting with the attention I have and the "support" I have. So we will see :).

I will disagree it will not work. Our goal is change through the Supreme Court and I have a federal advocacy agency and Tn agency working with me - both with attorneys. I am finally getting some traction. Thank you for the comment - if you feel it in you to share the efforts, please do!

I'm a Tennessee CRNA. Seven-plus years in long-term recovery from opioid use disorder. I have built a career, co-founded a business, mentored other nurses, and spoken publicly about what it means to come back to this profession after addiction. None of that is hidden — it's the whole reason I have anything to say. Right now I'm in a license defense. I'm not going to litigate the specifics here, and my lawyer would skin me alive if I did, but I will say it is not from relapse - it is from having a moment in time of not being able to afford the program - a reason that should never mean being kicked out and automatic suspension. What I want to talk about is what I'm seeing in the system that put me there, because I'm not the only one, and most of us never get to say it out loud. Here is what I think is true after years of watching this from the inside, from the recovery community, and from the advocacy work I do with Opal Advocacy and AK Strategies TN: The way state boards and monitoring programs handle nurses with SUD and mental health conditions was never designed to help us recover. It was designed to manage public safety risk — and at some point along the way, the two things got conflated. "Recovery" became a thing the program does to you instead of a thing you do. I have talked to nurses who were stable, working, sober, raising kids — and who lost their licenses anyway because of a procedural step they didn't know about, or a urine test result that was never re-tested, or a contract clause they signed in crisis without counsel. I have talked to families of nurses who didn't survive what these programs did to them. If you have been through this, you already know what I'm describing. If you haven't, please listen to the people who have. This is not a post about my personal grievance. This is a post about a structural problem in how this state — and frankly most states — treat providers who got sick with a disease that is endemic in our profession. It is also a post about what I'm doing about it. With two partner organizations, I'm funding both the legal defense of my own license and the policy work to change how monitoring is done in Tennessee - which needs to happen side by side so the governing bodies of the Board of Nursing and Board of Nursing - I.e. the government - can see what happens in real time. Provider testimonial videos. Lobbying. Building a documented record of where the system breaks. The two pieces are inseparable — a single license case is what gives the policy work standing in front of lawmakers. I'm posting here because this is where nurses who have been through this actually are. I'm asking three things of myself, and naming them publicly so I have to keep them: 1) Courage — to keep saying this out loud even when it would be safer not to. 2) Consistency — to keep showing up at the lobbying days, the legislative hearings, the boring policy meetings where the actual change happens. 3) Kindness — to every nurse who comes to this forum scared, ashamed, or convinced their career is over. It isn't. The system needs to change, and you are not the broken thing. If you have been through a monitoring program in any state and want to talk — comment here, message me, or find me on LinkedIn (Mary Smiley Ford). I'm collecting stories for the policy work. Anonymous is fine - but I am a safe space. If you are currently in a program and feel like you are drowning — please reach out. I learned that one the hard way. We get to take this profession back from a system that has been quietly grinding us up. It starts with refusing to pretend it isn't happening. Thanks for reading. — Mary

Not arguing. Having a discussion means discussing both points. The state is TN. Thought that was mentioned at some point. It’s too bad you “dislike” someone you do not even know. And I know ALL TOO WELL what the people responding to this post are going through - as I am too. I am going to assume also that you assume I am not going through the same thing. Your assumptions are wrong. I have been in my program for 2 years The contract she has signed says she may “voluntarily leave the program at any time by sending in a request to do so in writing and the Board of Health will be notified of closure of the case.” That is the only thing that the contract says or references in regards to notifying anyone and the only thing signed in regards to the monitoring program. There is no fine print or any other part to the contract. It does all say that any authorization of communication, I.e. with therapists, doctors, ect may also be revoked by simply writing of the participants want to do so and at that point no more information may be exchanged. The lawyer we met with today and read the contract said that the “notice of closing the file” is that and only that and if the authorizations are revoked at the same time as writing to leave the program then no medical information could be shared with anyone who has not been authorized to do so (which would be no one as those authorizations have at that point been revoked, which in TN (and I assume all states but maybe that’s wrong) you must give specific authorization for your health information to be shared). He said many other things about some points I brought up that have been brought up in this thread and does not see how most of them have legal ground and wondered if anyone has ever challenged them legally. I wonder the same thing.

In this state, the Board of Nursing is under the Board of Health umbrella so saying they are notifying the board of health most likely means the board of nursing. and yes - California and Mass are very different than the contract she signed. Very very different. lesson here is it is very state specific and to do research as your own state because experiences in other states may not be even close to your own

Yes. The public thing is crazy - that isn’t here for sure. And yes Ohio seems insanely more wicked than others that’s for sure. Based on what she signed her rights are not stripped as yours were. Would love to read an Ohio contract. Sounds insane.

This just simply Is not true. At least not in this state and I would encourage anyone in any state to know their rights. You do not lose your right to HIPAA by joining a monitoring program. You do not. And you state “if you leave the program without BON approval you are considered to have relapsed” as if this is true across the nation. Please realize each state is in fact different so spreading some of this misinformation causes fear and people to not know their rights.

Who would make you surrender your license? The monitoring program does not have that authority here in this state and the board would report you to OIG not the monitoring program. And they would only report you if they had something to report. They would first “open an investigation” and in this there is nothing to find. And as I said, the monitoring program can not give out health information if the authorization to do so has been revoked. But that sounds like that’s just how this state does it. Still just wanting to find anyone that’s ever done something like this as she has a very good reason to exit the program

Is this loss of right stated in your contact you sign? And you are not able to withdraw from that contract? I think I have heard Ohio is one of the worst states. But your mental health records should never be not protected. And yes - in this state there are not two separate programs for discipline vs no discipline. It’s all one program and I assume if you do get in legal trouble or caught at work to whatever the board would decide on discipline or not. and even if she were “reported to the board,” here they can not just tell all your personal records. If that is the case in Ohio then your rights are being heavily infringed upon and sounds like an easy case to win civil suit wise.

Per her contract they can only notify the board of health of its closure.

For sure - just asking if anyone knows anyone who has gone through it.

And if no criminal activity of any kind was involved?

What is OIG? The contract says they will notify board of health of “closure of file.” They wouldn’t be allowed to report anything else as it’s all protected healthcare information of all releases signed are revoked - which is also stated in the contract can be done by simply writing it be done.

Trying to find anyone that has left monitoring before their contract was up. Not kicked out for any reason, just simply left. I do not want any opinions on what might happen if one were to do this - just trying to find at least one person that has actually done it - should that exist haha TIA

My facility is eligible though. I read you don't have to be employed when you submit your application but just by July 2018. Is that true? I don't start at that facility until May - is it because my start date is after my submission?