Mscoolmug

I didn't have to have another nurse on site in my contract. Any employer you have will have to be agreeable to you leaving for a drug screen. I didn't have either employer I had under this give me a hard time.

I was first hired on in Home Health and got promoted to Regional Educator after about 6 months. I only stayed about a year total because the working environment was terrible. I work for a "second chance agency" now. We're a non profit focused on housing. I'm the Street Outreach Nurse. I don't know how one finds an agency that is labeled "second chance agency" but it's a vibe if you can find one. They hire people with colorful pasts if they can help it. I love it here. They hired me toward the end of my monitoring. I wasn't offered KARE, and only had a year of monitoring so it'll show up forever. I hope I can just work here until I die because the job search is so awful for us. Just keep applying. Someone will give you a chance, I promise!

I didn't have money for a lawyer but I wish I did. They wanted a $3-5k retainer. I wasn't not guilty. One guy did tell me that guilty or not, evidence or not, you're going to do some kind of punishment for any diversion accusation. I ended up only getting 1 year monitoring but it stays on my record forever ?‍? I'm not sure if a lawyer would have made much difference. I wish I had a chance to find out bc they had 0 evidence to include no negative drug screens, no past addiction, and I passed my drug and addiction eval. Bananas. If you think you're def guilty of whatever the charge is, I would just go in hat in hand, take responsibility for your actions and do whatever they tell you to do. Almost all the KARE contracts are the same, so it's not like a lawyer would cut a better deal, ya know? But if you're not guilty and you can afford it, I'd def fight it.

I sure didn't care for it ?

I know this is 500 years later, but I just stumbled onto this thread LOL Anyway, my mom had a hemorrhagic stroke at home. My husband found her and called 911. She was not conscious during her stay either. We tried some interventions, but with the seizures and uncontrolled bleeding, there was little hope. We made her a DNR and she moved to hospice where she was gone in less than 24 hours. She moved to hospice the day before my sister's birthday. My sister was heartbroken that she might pass on her birthday. She is a very emotional person, and she and my mom were very close. My sister, brother, husband and I decided to all spend the night on the pull outs in the room. About 11pm on May 24, we had all started to doze off. Then we heard scratching on the walls, which woke everyone up immediately. The scratching went from one wall to another wall, and after a few minutes stopped. We all laid back down, but then the same thing started up again about 1130pm. This time banging from wall to wall. I told everyone it was probably her telling us it was time. We all got up and gathered around. My sister said she needed to go to the bathroom. It wasn't 30 secs after my sister left the room, my mom took her last breath. It was 12:02 am on May 25. I truly believe she waited until not only it was not my sister's birthday anymore, but until she left the room because she knows she would have had a difficult time watching her last breath.

Thank you! And thank you for sharing yours!

absolutely not meant to be your friend, but it would be cool if they didn't actively try to kick you while you're down. Parole is the worst. I haven't been on parole but I work with the homeless population and have to take them from jail to parole before mental health court and the way I have to bite my tongue because WHY ARE YOU TALKING TO HIM LIKE THAT. ?‍? and that's literally not even a small piece of it. And it's not even me and it gets me so upset. I wish I had a support a system like that. That's so good for you and your sobriety. Most of my coworkers are in felony probation and in recovery. I go to AA with a couple of my teammates pretty often if we're out and they want to hit a meeting. Don't laugh at me like they did LOL but I swear no one out there outshines someone in recovery. They're a whole light in this world. (I stole that from fb but it's true). The strength it takes, all of the hard work on healing yourself...to walk into parole or the BON giving you all the ways you should fail ? I got punished for lazy work from my employer and the BON. But it all really opened my eyes. Changes need to be made. I don't have the answers. I just wish I knew a path to even begin to advocate for that. Everything happens for a reason. I was put in a place where (ironically, really) I'm surrounded by people in recovery and get to work side by side with them, learning from their journey. I have seen coworkers relapse, go to treatment and come back to work or the flip side, not make it to treatment and overdose ? my patients are usually in active addiction, unhoused and trying to survive. I am really lucky that I had a caseworker who advocated for me at all times. She wasn't my friend but she damn sure was going to help me succeed when I wanted to quit. She even advocated and got me release 4 days early so I didn't have to wait another whole weekend. My story won't be changed no matter what I do from here. I was so blind sighted by how someone could just lie and the BON could just go with it without evidence. A legal team in place doesn't mean much when one nurse can't fight the whole system. They might have enough money to fight for themselves but that broken system is still there. It has the potential to harm all of us. I was really upset about how my case was decided but when that nurse admitted to me and apologized, wrote a statement and it wasn't even taken for consideration...I had completely my monitoring already. I just wanted my name cleaned. She was in active addiction and very functional until she wasn't. I don't blame her at all. She wasn't trying to harm me and didn't have the strength to speak up. The facility I worked for knew though. Noone will convince me otherwise. And now the BON knows but doesn't care. I'm assuming it's safer to just deny it bc if they pull back a public discipline it's admitting fault and mishandling a case, opening up for legal action. Again, I have no answers on how to fix anything or even any ideas. I just hope if someone hears my story they 1. Always carry insurance to protect themselves and 2. Be braver and louder than I was through the process. If I had been braver and louder, I might have had a different outcome.

You're incredibly strong. Recovery is not a straight line, as you already well know. It's a front, back, side to side and then a whole jump spin. Your hard work will definitely see you through. The BON is there to protect the public. I get that. I'm for that. Let's do that. The problem with how the entity is set up is there are no outside governing agencies to provide guidelines to disciple. It's like if you are charged a crime and allowing the judge to handle the situation however he wants to and there's nothing anyone can do. The system is set up for an abuse of power. Nurses should be trusted individuals who just inherently do the right thing even when no one's looking, but the fact that people are standing in front of them after making mistakes proves that unfortunately, we're all just human. Humans run off of emotion, mood, biases, ect. Do I think they sit around with malicious in their actions? No, but I do believe they have no system in place to keep them from making too harsh or too lenient of a decision because they feel like it. Again, I don't believe it's intentional but humans be humaning. Even when the best of intentions, we do not always realize how our own personal experiences or mood that day might affect our decision making skills. When I say "the BON" I refer to the system, not the individuals. Handing down decisions that have the potential to ruin someone's life should not be made by an individual or group of individuals. As in law, there needs to be parameters to follow. I am friends with someone who sat on the BON. He said there were many times you could tell someone's mood by the way they would want to go in the final decision to go. Your group of people sitting on the BON are the only ones keeping each other in check. That blows my mind to know end. How is that legal? There's no way to fight the BON systems. Where we sit we can fight for our own case if it was unjust. (Mine was completely unfounded. I was even told information reported was not substantiated. The camera footage of the time showed me doing anything the complaint said I did. The final agreement came down with completely false information. I can either agree with it or as they put it "I'll get you in contact with whom you can surrender your license.” I didn't have money to fight with an attorney. No where close, although after consulting with 2, I was told I did have a case worth fighting. They require a retainer. I had no money to feed my kids so that wasn't even an option. I had to agree to everything they said so I could practice and feed, house and clothe my kids as a single mom. The only thing accurate in my agreement was that I broke policy by prepulling medications and leaving them unattended. I wasn't seen taking anything, tested negative for any substances, passed my SUD eval and no history of any SUD. Yet, I have to agree to diverting medications or surrender my license. I couldn't even enter into KARE. They wouldn't even put it on the table so I could have a clean record since "no substance abuse disorder was substantiated.” Then why am being told they I'm an addict diverting medications and required to drug test? And while I'm on my soap box, physicians are not held to the same standard as nurses. They under reported by employers for diverting, addiction and other very dangerous behaviors. They rarely face any real consequences and get to continue to practice with no negative marks at all on their license. I am glad you had a good experience, however, we can all admit we made mistakes. I certainly did. I did not, however, steal medications. If you look my license up it says I did, though. WITH NO EVIDENCE. Just a hunch from my boss because was easier than finding out what DID happen. I DO know what happened. I usually leave this part out because it makes me shake to even address it. later found out another nurse came behind me to take the medication for herself. She admitted it after diverting from another facility. The BON said it doesn't matter because I signed an agreement so I did take it, so they wouldn't be relooking at that. I don't even care about the money thrown away for drug tests. I just wanted my reputation back. I can hire a lawyer except I'm still in financial ruin from the entire thing, and I'm lucky to be able to at least juggle my bills and keep my kids from realizing we have no money. They're fed with a roof. And I'll never have the money to clear my name. All because there's no governing entity over the BON.

Wellll if you go back further we definitely have been sharing very negative experiences. It's worth reading and knowing these experiences are possibilities for you as well. I hope you have a great experience. I had a great case worker. Not everyone was that lucky. Obviously no one here claims to not have made a mistake. However, the practices of the BON are less than professional and if in a court of law would be illegal. My cousin is a criminal lawyer and could not believe the things that are permitted without a governing body to hold them accountable. They have no governing guidelines. It's a whole crap shoot what will happen to you. Your entire life as you know it is left up to the feelings and biases of a handful of people and not a thing you can do about it. We either play their game or find a new career, so here we are.

Right. I can't remember it was here or a different form someone was giving advice on how to be in monitoring and still drink alcohol without getting caught and how they do it all the time. (Don't do that LOL) I can't imagine why someone would risk putting that information out there even if the likelihood of knowing who posted it was slim. Will not stop sharing my experience openly and honestly so people are not blind sighted. People should know how this system works and how to protect themselves.

Dialysis wouldn't hire me. No LTC. I finally got a home health job which wasn't bad. The pay was an adjustment to say the least. I got promoted pretty quickly to Regional Nurse Educator. It paid really well but my regional director from the main office was abusive. I thought I was stuck, but I started applying. I got hired on at a housing focused nonprofit as the street outreach nurse and it's amazing. If some of those "guarantee" settings turn you down, just keep at it. Someone will give you a chance to prove yourself.

The BON benefits from the KARE program like you do. Someone IN KARE might have a different opinion. My grass just might be greener on the other side, ya know? Hopefully someone chimes in who has experience. As far as your name and Google account YIKES. Can you wipe this account and just start a new one? I have no idea LOL when you're just out here trying to figure how to keep your career together and the universe out here with their BS linking your Google account ?

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS on your sobriety! I was not offered KARE. Just a one year monitoring with no stipulations on my license but other disciplinary actions. It's there forever. It was difficult to get a job. With KARE, like you said, there's a degree of protection. One of those benefits, in my opinion, is people ARE willing to work with KARE even with restrictions but not someone just on probation with monitoring with no restrictions. AND you get the benefit of having it wiped from your license when it's completed. I got my agreement to sign and requested KARE, but because no SUD was found to be substantiated, I was refused. But I have to have the accusation of diversion in my record and have the headache and expense of monitoring. Oh OK. I personally would have chosen KARE knowing in 5 years I would have a clean license.

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