Ipnsux

So DSC, so you're an IPN contract already? Are you trying to fight it now? What are they accusing you of? Best of luck, we are here for you!

That's amazing! Best of luck to you! Fingers crossed that's the last of your BS. I literally quit nursing and am doing real estate. Much better market and way less stress! ??

congratulations!! I hope your license is clear and active as soon as possible, the DOH is beyond slow, especially to reverse a wrong! I’m guessing doing anesthesia with that user name ??? I hope you sue the crap out of them all, such a money-grubbing program!

Who did your other IME? So hard to find one to do one unless IPN pays them. They are all so scared of IPN and getting kicked out of the program. Such BS!

That’s amazing LMA! Did they take your IME? Or did you go to their person and also get cleared? Congratulations! It’s so hard to get out of their clutches once you are on their radar. Best of luck with your career moving forward! Now to sue them all in bed with IPN! Absolutely sickening how they profit off nurses who may actually need help.

Good luck LMA! It took my savings but it was worth it. At least I think so. But now working through this Covid BS, I may switch careers ?

Look at the credentialing questions carefully. Some ask if you've ever had formal discipline, some ask if you've ever been investigated. Sounds like you're in the clear either way since there's no paper trail at the BON which is where they'd enquire about such things. I'm not suggesting you lie, just saying I'd be careful about what you tell them. On some forms, it asks "in the past 3/5 years.." so if it's old enough I think on most credentialing you'd be fine.

Hi @mamuchi7 well my lawyer and I self reported to the BON, NOT IPN. There’s a huge difference in Florida. I then got an IPN evaluation on my own, which is hard to do. I googled IPN evaluators to find people because IPN doesn’t disclose their list unless you sign paperwork with them first. Your lawyer may know an evaluator willing to do it. IPN bullies these people into not doing evaluations unless it is IPN referred. They’re afraid of IPN getting upset and not sending them people to get evaluated. I got a list from my lawyer and google and a handful of them were afraid of this. It’s crazy how this program has even the evaluator scared. it took several months for the Board to respond. You get a letter saying you’re being investigated and have 20-45 days to respond either in writing or in an interview. Do NOT call the investigator. Your lawyer will handle everything. from there, it goes to the probable cause panel. As far as my case, I’m at this phase. the investigator makes a recommendation but doesn’t decide what happens, the probable cause committee does. get a new job ASAP. You aren’t in IPN now. It’ll give you a few months to prove you’re a good employee and then if monitoring comes up you can go from there. Right now make as much money as possible and save it. IPN will call you in the beginning of the investigation, just say you don’t want to enter at this time, you want to deal with the BON. you are right, you risk having a complaint with possible discipline on your license but if you go straight into IPN know your life will change and it’ll be hard to get another job right away. Financially you might want to start working ASAP and have your lawyer fight your case. But this is always a personal choice. Speak with you case with you lawyer, many of them used to work for the DOH and have a good sense of what will happen in your case. good luck! It does get better

To the OP- you wonder why this forum seems to be “the BON is out to get us”. This crap is why. The BON is not there for nurses, it’s to protect the public. Most BON push all discipline to the monitoring programs that have no oversight and have all these kick back schemes with the evaluators. If they truly cared about a nurse in recovery, they’d understand we are human and make mistakes. And would treat us with half the dignity we treat our patients with the same mental health/substance abuse issues. The monitoring programs use scare tactics and straight up LIE to make nurses feel it is their only option. The put your license as a bargaining tool and if you have enough money, you can *** up many many times. If they cared about nurses who have addiction issues, they’d change their practice. In Florida, for physicians, the PRN program is non profit, and the list of providers is much more open, while IPN for nurses is a for profit system and very secretive. Im glad the OP has had great results with their monitoring program. But you have to realize that some nurses that are referred to this are not addicts— they just ***ed up. Even with clean urine and hair tests, someone accusing you of being altered will get you into this mess. That’s what you see here. Frustrated people, fighting for their lives and licenses, being treated with cookie cutter treatments, with virtually no due process.

I worked with a provider who did IPN evaluations. Let's just say he got out of it because of the corruption. He wanted to help patients and prescribed them things he thought would help. IPN tracks the % of people sent to a provider, and if they suggest monitoring. If the provider gets below 90% of suggesting monitoring, IPN harasses them and threatens to pull their ability to do assessments. Wonder why they only give you 3 options? Those are their top earners in that area. As an evaluator, if you upset IPN, they will not send you patients. For some of the mental health counselors, this is a big portion of their income.

I'm in the same boat now. I'm looking at IPN as this terrible thing, but if you want to be a nurse, this is a hoop (or many) that you will jump through.

@sheracraft Can you give a hint on your IPN evaluator in Gainesville? I'd message you but I don't have enough posts.

This post gives me hope! thank you!

@Persephone Paige I have definitely considered it. After speaking to the investigator, he said most likely my license would not be suspended because of the circumstances around my case. Plus they have an evaluation in front of them saying I'm safe to practice. IPN will try to downplay it and make it seem that the only route would be for their intervention but I want a shot to at least look at the Board. I know IPN is used to nurses just rolling over for fear of public complaints. I was close to just saying *** it, but I know what happened, and I won't go down without a fight. You're totally right. I could end up back in IPN. I don't think it would be a two year suspension. But I'm prepared.

IPN will give you a list of 3 IPN approved evaluators. Most have financial incentive to suggest as much monitoring as possible, especially if they own an outpatient rehab.. That being said do your research on the evaluators. I worked with a doctor who did IPN evaluations, and he said they were horrible to work for. That IPN tracks a % of those that each evaluator does NOT recommend montioring. If that number gets too high, they will pull their ability to do evaluations for them. Even the doctor said IPN was just out for money. They would complain he didn't order enough labs, etc. Or they would take his evaluations and add more stipulations to the nurses "sentence". He eventually stopped doing them because of all the harassment from IPN. The list of providers is a secret, they will not give it out to anyone-- even the BON! They have to call IPN and IPN will simply say if they are approved or not.

This is a really tough position to be in. Even if you're upfront and honest, it may end up backfiring. I'm fighting the IPN battle. You do not want to be caught up in this. They would tell you you can't be on your meds, period. I think the suggestions of asking a lawyer are a great idea. From there, once you apply for a position, perhaps be upfront with them before the drug screen. This may help things as far as reporting you etc. If you take a drug screen, and it pops positive for Sub, you'll get a call from the Medical Review Office (MRO). If you can submit your prescription and provider info, that may be enough for them. They may still mark it as a "Negative" result but mention that it could affect your work. Very tough call. I would be upfront with employers, give them documentation of the program that you're in. This may help any Board involvement. I would look closely at the RN application for the state you're in. It may directly ask if you're in a program like this.

@ruby_janeIPN called me, so I had to respond. I could have just made them speak with my lawyer directly, but I spoke with my lawyer and she told me my options. IPN was given my contact info from the BON. They told me I would have to get an evaluation from an evaluator of their choosing, even though I already had one. My lawyer is great and keeping me from freaking out. Even if this ends up as an official complaint, at this point I'm done caring. I've been saving for months preparing for all this BS anyway. I can see how others put in this situation would just jump through the IPN hoops in order to not get anything on their record, etc.

So I spoke with my lawyer and she suggested "deferring" the IPN referral and deal with the Investigator/BON. I spoke with the investigator and gave him my evaluation I've already had done. He said since IPN is now involved it may not be good enough. I love how even with an IPN approved evaluator, the investigator said they need to "maintain integrity" and since I "passed with flying colors on the first one" that I should be fine with the new IPN-facilitated evaluator. Such horse ***!!! He insinuated that I could find someone who was an evaluator and get them to give me a good evaluation. I told the Investigator the 3 closest evaluators have financial ties to outpatient rehabs in the area, why would they not suggest this for me if it helps their bottom line?... Crickets So the Investigator said once IPN contacts him and tells him officially I've deferred their request, that he would send an official letter out. He said I could send him the evaluation proactively as a "response". From there it goes to the Board of Nursing and they decide my fate. I think I'll be able to go to the actual meeting, which will help and even the Investigator suggested that I be present. Once it goes to the board, it may become a public complaint, but at this point, I'm mentally prepared for it. Even if they mandate that I go through the IPN process, I can at least say I tried. Stay tuned folks!

So, I posted several months ago. I self reported a positive drug screen 5 months ago. I don't do drugs, it wasn't an intentional thing. Let's just leave it at that. BON is finally looking at my case. I got a phone call from IPN that the investigator on my case from the BON contacted IPN for an "emergency referral". IPN lady said I had 24 hours to agree to get an evaluation and voluntarily withdraw my license. The ironic thing is I already got an evaluation per my lawyer, who is approved, but since it was not "IPN facilitated" I cannot use it with IPN. ?I knew this would probably happen but my lawyer was hoping to present it to the BON and not deal with IPN. My evaluation I got on my own did NOT suggest monitoring which is amazing! So I plan on sending that to the new, IPN owned, evaluator. I'm sure he is in their pocket and financially driven to say that I'll need monitoring. I'm mentally prepared for that part. My concern is I've received nothing from the DOH/BON. My lawyer says I have two choices. Play the IPN game, or try to deal with the BON, but risk a suspension on my license while they "investigate", and a public complaint on my license. I can see why IPN backs you into a corner and makes it seem that the only way is through them, by their arbitrary rules. I'm waiting to hear back from IPN. I knew I'd get sucked into this, but a positive evaluation made me think for one moment I'd prevail.

So even with an IPN evaluator that was supposed to not be associate with the system, they suggested one year of monitoring because they couldn't rule out "cannabis substance use disorder". and you're only in remission of said disorder after 12 months without using it. Does a hair test mean nothing? It was so pricey and I feel like no matter who you go to, they are going to make you go into the circus.

No, not second hand stuff. I'd be scared being around it too.

OMG that sounds terrible RN1965! Similar situation for me. I'm really hoping I don't get stuck in IPN because of a stupid stupid mistake. I'm glad I have witnesses that signed affidavits about what happened, but all of the stuff I read on here makes it seem that the BON doesn't care if there are people who truly aren't addicts--they want their money =/

Without getting into too many details, I do have a good defense for how it happened. I dont smoke. It was truly accidental. I know it sounds like a excuse but thankfully I have a witness. I just had ****** co-workers who told my employer to test me when I told one of them of the incident. I'm just hoping they believe me, even with all the affidavits I have and all the negative screens I feel they just want people in the program, even if they aren't an addict. Has anyone gone through the board without IPN? How long did it take you to hear anything?

Yeah it was for thc. I had a negative hair test for everything. I can't believe they would recommend inpatient for that!

So I had a positive drug screen. Got an IPN evaluation per my lawyer but IPN hasn't gotten involved yet. I self reported to Florida BON. Just waiting to hear back. Negative hair and urine test given to evaluator. My lawyer suggested a good one that wasn't part of the IPN program but is able to give IPN evaluations. My lawyer says I have a decent case to possibly not start IPN if the evaluation went well. Did not divert and screen wasn't positive for narcs. Anyone know of someone who got out of IPN? My lawyer has several success stories but I wanted to hear from you all. I'm expecting the worst but wanted to see what you all thought. Thank you!