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Well said. I have been on it since 2006 .Some may say I am weak and still using but since I only answer to myself I say I am almost eight years in recovery. I can honestly say I have not used any iligal narcotics.i have no cravings and have gone from 32 mg a day to 4 mgs a day. I am now a practicing lpn for four years without a single incident.Although I have seen many other nurses using and diverting drugs with no proof I have to mind my business and worry about myself. I was out of nursing for almost three years and thought I would not be able to work in nursing a gain. I did start as a can until my compny felt they built enogh trust to let me work as a lpn which I am now doing. My life is normal and some day I may not need it but for no I will continue to slowly wean myself off and live in alife wear I can do what I love nursing. when I got my license back the nys nursing board new I was on suboxone and aloowed me to work while on the medication. So for any of you who think its as bad as using other narcotics yea I will call you ignorant because as they say addiction is a disease which can be controed with medication same as any other illnesses and also like other illnesses is no cure.Best wishes for any one going thru the struggle..

I am in my 6th year. I unfortunatly wasnt so lucky finding a job. it took me three plusyears ti get back in nursing. i am however working in a ltc facility and have been there 3 years which one of I had to work as a aid to get back in their good graces. I am very happy with my job and when i go to furums like this i remember just how fortunate i am to have a nursing job. It will be six years i have been sober and life ius good. I wish the rest of you success and if your having trouble finding a job dont give up.

best wishes Honest&hopeful &hurt!

I am interested and will research this issue more. but in this case resident was definatly faking,seeing how her seizure stopped immediately and she never had one since.also had many other behavior issues. I also wish you the best.

I had a women who also used to fake seizures I finally had to say in a nice way. I am not sure whaT YOU ARE HAVING BUT IT COUldnt be a seizure dear,I know this because you wouldnt be able to talk through a seizure nor would you be able to stop and wring the call bell.Thats the funny part ahe would ACTUally tlak during it. I...dont....feel.....good......ring..........ring...she hasn't had one since.nor did she get the phenobarb she was hinting at.

Ftoll24; I here yout having trouble getting off your last mg. why dont you try tapering slowly maybe .75 mg for a month then .5 mg then .25 or even two months. i think the people who have problems are just stopping 1mg to quickly. good luck.and congradulations on your continued successful recovery. and if your life is managable and you are not using more then the perscribed amount you truly are in recovery!~

i agree with the above posts when they say if you chose to smoke full well knowing what it could cost you then you may have a problem. there is a nurse in my group who just came to our group for using mj. she stated she did not have a problem. she stated she never smoked but chose one night after many years of being grown with children to randemly smoke a joint. she said the next day she was asked to pee on comand at work because she was acting funny. she did not think she was she said she was just tired. i guess it was a major coincidence that she failed the test for mj. now she may be stuck in a state monitoring program with us. oh yea she then mentioned how her sister was always telling her she was taking to many narcotic pain meds. which she didnt think was a problem either. she was also doing this with her young children asleep up stairs.If it looks like a duck... if you know what i mean. I feel for the poor sole who started this thread but nobody forced the joint in your hand.Or did they?

Wow,did you ever think this thread would get so many posts,maybe we should print them out and put a copy in everyone of our facilities!!

do you have a union? if so tghey may be able to helpyou. they can fire you if you were under the influence.good luck,let us know how you make out.

agency makes more but still not as much as nyc

The pay is half of what you get in nyc. their are mostly long term care positions. and rn' make about 25 dollars a hour. not two much more but i guess it depends on your experience and where you apply.

as far as i know suboxone will not come out on a random emplyment drug screen. it has to be listed and is expensive. it will not show up as a regular narcotic. at least it never used to. I suggest you dont say anythin unless asked. I agree with others just bring in your script if they ask. chances are it wont show up. if you admit to it not only will it be onthe record but it will follow you and can cause un neccesary problems.best wishes on a continued successful recovery.

I am not sure how far you wanna go to work as a nurse again but i worked as a cna(nursing asst) for eight months to prove what a reliable trusted valuable employee i could be. it paid off I am now working as a LPN on a unit with 40 beds where I am the charge nurse. I have done well and it was definatly worth the humiliation of working as a aid for the eight months;. I am not saying working as a aid is humiliating only after being incharge for several years befor having to go back to doing it. i was very proud when i was a aid for 5 years befreo becoming a nurse.

maybe they wont report it to the bon and as long as you no longer smoke may be o.k. I would not make any calls until you know for sure. Trust me you dont want to be involved with the TPAPN if you dont have to. and if you can afford it get a lawyer if you cant try calling legal aid.

I may work for you but since you are on medicaid "I ALSO PAY FOR YOU!"And "NO I AM NOT YOUR PRIVATE NURSE" "I HAVE 39 OTHER PATIENTS ON THIS FLOOR"!. THIS IS A LONG TERM CARE FACILITY NOT A HOTEL!" BOY THANKS, IT FELT SO GOOD TO SAY THAT NOW IF ONLY MY PATIENTS WOULD READ THIS FORUM! LOL! Oh yea I forgot about the resident who is screaming Help!, ,Help!, Help! and when you respond they calmly ask you fro their remote control or some other unimportant task,meanwhile you were trying to pass out one of you 40 something patients medicine, and you have to put everything in the cart and lock it up before running because you are sure by the sound of it that the patint is falling out of bed!

I know of a nurse who is in the proffesional assiatance program who lives in NY she is on suboxone for almost 4 years and has been doing wonderful she is working a slow taper and has gone grom 32 mg to 14mg .without it i do not think she would have made it thay far. she is now after 3 plus years working as a lpn in NY with no restrictions on her license except that she acn not do more overtime then 10 hours every other week.so it may be a case to cars basis.

This may sound stupid but what is the OIG exclusion list and how do you find out if you are on it.

Congradulations, I am happy all your hardwork paid off. I know how great you feel. I remeber when I first got my job I could not believe it. I had waited 3 years and 8 months although my problem was more then just pot.But I did work hard the whole times and I got the same thing as you. " we understand and admire you for what your going thru" but then never called. I had tried several times over the years. then when my narcotic restriction was lifeted my old company that i was terminated from in 2001 hired me this year. I am still walking on clouds. I also appreciate my career and will never take it for granted again.Best wishes again!

I would not worry to much. In my experiance in the nursing home were i work if they want your attention they will through whatever is handy at you like a bed pan,water pitcure..... Only Kidding. I hope you can work that out.

does it display bowel sounds, have you checked with nursing schools to see if they accept deaf students. I bet you can overcome this hurdle as I am sure you overcame many hurdles in your life so far.

Unfortunately I do not believe they take any special considerations for disability. Maybe you can get in another medical field such as phlebotomy. I do not know of any school you would be able to graduate from. I do know that we could sure use some one with your determination to work were i am employed. we have many full hearing cna's that are lazy and have bad attitudes. In my facility you do not need to take blood pressures that as a LPN is my job. Can you read lips. If so maybe you can find another company who runs their own can course who will be willing to open them selfs up for a great employee. Good luck

Congradulations on your graduating RN school and good luck with the nyclex. I am a Lpn and dont remeber that being on our test but i am sure rn is different.

That seems like a great website with all kinds of health information. the website i mentioned has a forum where others post there own experience, I know I got allot of information and support. It is like a on line NA meeting.They also have a on line eve chat and are starting a Wednesday morning chat. It is of course free and confidential(I sound like I am doing a commercial) I cant help it though I have been going to that website since 2007 and it really helps.I would suggest it to your patients. It also has a place where you can post your story or I guess it is a journal where you can go back any day and post how you are feeling. you can also read others which is where I really realized I am not alone.Do you have many patients on suboxone?

I am sorry I believe I mixed you up with another nurse. I had read this nurse was on tramadol for pain and she had six years sobriety. I am still on voluntary monitoring program I am no longer on probation my case with the state is closed i had a two year probation.They do know i am on suboxone. I am not sure but i think it is a case to case basis. I'm sorry to keep going back to the tapering but I am curious at why you did not go to half a mg then 1/4 mg I only say this because I have heard of successful tapers with little or no withdrawals.And I want to continue my taper but I am hoping for little or no problem. I was very nervous when I started counting narcs again. not that I had cravings but a rush of feelings came back to me Guilt mostly, also good feelings like wow i will not be called down to the office today and terminated for (well lets not get into that we will save it for another day)I was on the highest recommended dosage that would cause me to feel normal.

Sw RN I hope this does not sound like I am judging you but I have concerns with people being on tramadol while in recovery. As I had mentioned in another post I had awful withdrawals and cravings when I would run out of my tramadol. I did on occasion divert this drug. As a matter of fact I had lost my first nursing job due to diverting tramadol. I am curious at how many others in recovery had abused this medication. It was one of the drugs I would take if I could not get anything else. It would stop my withdrawals temporarily until I could get my DOC(which was any thing that had a control label on it. I believe you when you say there no better feeling then when you do it on your own but unfortunately there are many of us who may will or have relapsed without Suboxone. I wish I was stronger and some day I believe I will be. as for now I just got my career back and I do not wish to take any chances. I know you said you were on 6 years sobriety what if you do not mind me asking was your doc and how long did you use before you got clean and is this your first time in recovery. I want to thank you for answering my questions and posts without turning this int argument. I am sure many people can get great encouragement from your story. I did want to add one more thing and that is. You said you did a slow taper how slow. I started on 32mga day and over 2 and a half years went down to 20 mg A day. I never felt any different over a little more then a year later I am at 12 mg. I still feel no with drawls. I plan to take the next year and try to get down to 6mg.I know you are really not supposed to feel much until you get down below 8mg. I then plan on going about a mg a month then 1/2 mg a month then 1/4 then maybe everyone day etc. Did you try that slow of a taper. I know I sound like a chicken but i Really dint want to rock the boat or take any chances. If I screw up my nursing career a second time I know I will never get this opportunity again.