nursedudekl

Have you had job difficulties? Reported? Board action? I have been through much with this and would be happy to help anyone that wants information. Presently licensed and attending grad school with the above illnesses.

I have adhd and bipolar II disorder. I have been a registered nurse for over 13 years. I finished half of my MSN towards certification as an adult nurse practitioner. I can tell you that these conditions that I have--have caused gravely serious consequences for me professionally and personally. Included in these consequences was an inability to be licensed for over 17 months and board action. I went from making $80,000 per year to zero in a heartbeat. I borrowed over $65,000 from my family to get back to practice and every cent was necessary to do so because of mistakes that I made resulting from my illness. This was a long, harrowing and exceedingly frustrating process. I have much to tell you if you are a nurse with this condition. If you are impaired by ADHD and it affects your practice as a nurse, there are several things you need to be aware of which may directly contradict what you may have been told. 1. Forget what you have been told about "reasonable accomodations" and the Americans with Disabilities Act. ADHD is officially recognized, supposedly, but this act is useless and not enforced or policed in a heavily regulated, lawsuit happy profession like nursing. What any employer and your board of nursing wants to know is can you function in your area of practice with your condition of adhd WITHOUT any accomodations? If the answer to this is no, then I wouldn't risk my licensure to prove otherwise. 2. If you are significantly impaired by adhd in your chosen area of practice, chances are, people notice it and may report it to your superiors or even to the board of nursing. This includes (for someone with ADHD): problems with documenting accurately and in a timely fashion, staying organized and prioritized in your care delivery, being able to multi-task despite numerous conflicting distractions, and making appropriate judgements about changes in client's status and intervening appropriately (and another biggie--time management problems necessitating your employer paying overtime.) More importantly---not appropriately documenting NARCOTICS is a big, big red flag. You must, must must document fully and completely with narcotics. If you don't, it raises the ire of suspicion of diversion and/or abuse. If you have a lot of narcotics to give and document and it is a problem for you to do so because of your adhd, FIND ANOTHER SETTING to work. If you don't, you will find yourself without a license. Explaining to them that you have adhd doesn't work, having negative drug screens doesn't work, having a good work record may not help either. It is a federal regulation, a nursing regulation and an institutional standard that you document appropriately all controlled substances. Period. If you had or have trouble with these things, as I did, I urge you to make sure your practice setting is appropriate for you WITH your limitations. This may mean taking a pay cut. This may be a painful but necessary adjustment if you cannot function with your adhd in certain high stress settings like ICU, ED, Telemetry, or Med/Surg. I worked for years and years in these settings and documentation was the common-thread problem and other adhd related things. The bottom line is: NOBODY cares about your adhd and how it affects your performance. You are held accountable as a nurse, period. Therefore, you must regulate yourself in your practice area with your illness. GET treatment if you are impaired with this condition (once a month isn't enough, generally) borrow if you have to do so for the treatment, FIND an appropriate practice setting and be SELF-AWARE of your behavior and SET LIMITS when you are asked to exceed your normal requirement by working extra when you are tired. Your employer won't pay your mortgage if you can't work as a nurse because of something you didn't do appropriately. And believe me, if your performance comes into question and it has to do with something high profile-- that a doctor complains about or a patient's family complains about or a narcotic issue---YOUR MANAGER/SUPERVISOR WILL NOT BACK YOU. JCAHO is really big about patient rights, resolving and/or eliminating patient complaints and MD's are held in high regard in hospitals because they bring in the patients and the money. The nurse is low and vunerable, especially if you are impaired with this condition. A good work history helps but it may not be enough. I had won many awards and honors but it didn't help when my performance was affected by my illness. I hope this information has been helpful. Feel free to send me a private message if I can help any nurse or anyone who has a mental illness that is a practicing health care professional. I have learned much from my own recovery process and I have learned through exceedingly painful consequences---as such, I am happy to share my knowledge.

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