ADN244

Tbh it's crazy to me that just because you wrote an order that another provider didn't agree with that all of a sudden they are going to investigate you LOL. That seems dumb to me. I feel like a better way to go around this would be to just discuss why there was a difference in orders. Anyways, like others have said, you're not even in monitoring. You said you don't drink alcohol or do other drugs so that won't show up on your screening. Not sure why Kratom would matter to this situation, unless the patient had an adverse drug reaction because you were high or something from it while seeing this pt/writing orders for them.

That's good advice and good to know. Thanks so much.

OK that makes a lot more sense to me now. Thank you for explaining.

That makes sense, I guess I'm just confused why it mattered for OP that the drug screen came back positive for alcohol. If someone isn't in trouble with BON or in monitoring, but they show up to work tired and randomly get screened because someone at work reported that they 'looked hungover', it's possible for them to be penalized if they have EtG in their urine for drinking 2 nights ago?

I'm confused on how it works if you were ever asked to get drug screened at work...do they do the typical urine EtG test? So alcohol would stay in your system for like 3 days in that case....so is the best rule of thumb to not have a drink if you know you have to work within the next 3 days? What if you only have weekends off, does that mean it's best to just never drink since if you had a drink on Friday after work, it would show up in your system if you had to drug test on Monday? Also, this is if you're NOT in monitoring.....I know obviously if you are in monitoring you should not drink or do drugs for the entirety of it. I'm asking if you are NOT in monitoring, but say something happened and you were randomly asked to do a drug screen at work like OP who looked 'tired' one day. Just asking so I can practice safely in the future.

Anyone have experience with mental/physical exams that have helped get their case get dismissed? Did you have a hard time getting the BON to look at this evaluation if it wasn't from an approved evaluator?

Has anyone heard of a 'mental and physical' exam that's been done before? I heard that this could be a possibility if one rejects the original evaluation that was done. Anyone do this before or know anything about it? It's separate from a substance use disorder exam

Thank you everyone for the incredibly helpful advice!! I have reached out to a nurse attorney (I wish I did this sooner since I'm not sure if it will be too late now). But I'm glad I know this information now at least.

Thanks so much for this explanation! I know that PA's monitoring program is a minimum of 3 years. But, I will get my own SUD eval done and I'm hoping that will help too. Thank you very much.

So I'm already in the system to go to this inpatient evaluation next week from a facility required by the board.....do you recommend that I don't go there anymore and instead get this second evaluation done? Or would it be OK to still go to this facility, and if they STILL say I have a mild disorder, then to get another (technically a third) outside opinion? The issue here is I already am signed up to go to this facility... Not sure if it will look a lot worse if I go here...and they say I have a mild disorder...and then I get a third outside who says I don't...but the first 2 count against me, you know?

Do you by chance have links to any of these stories where a nurse has gotten an outside evaluation done? I tried to find it and I can't find any. Thank you

Wow - thank you so so much!! This is really helpful. Much appreciated.

Thank you so much!! I see that you are a legal nurse consultant...do you by chance have any suggests for anyone I can talk to in PA?

Wow thank you so much! I didn't even know this was an option. Do you know of any lawyers who have done this in PA? It's weird that the lawyer I got did not even tell me about this...

Both of the evaluations were after the event, but they were a couple years back. I am getting an inpatient, more strict, evaluation done soon. It was a facility recommended by the BON (and the only facility they said they will accept opinions from). Isn't it the BON who has the final say? Do you know of any lawyers in PA who help with this? Because after looking at my case, my lawyer told me my best case is to go to this inpatient evaluation, get a negative test to prove I have not been drinking for the past 3 months, and hope that they let me off the hook. But he did not mention getting another evaluation done because after speaking with my case manager, he said that this would be the only option. Do you know of nurses who got an evaluation that said 'mild disorder' but they got an evaluation done on their own and got off the hook from the monitoring program? Does an administrative law judge override the BON?