Bethany69

Did you have to do TPAPN? I have been in TPAPN and clean and sober for two years and 5 months, and have yet find suitable employment for TPAPN.....I have tried everything I can think of. Dialysis used to be okay, but now they work 16 hr days sometimes which would not be okay with TPAPN, but I do not have any experience in that anyway....I went to a DaVita Dialysis job fair, but they did not call. I have been working on my BSN for a year, but can not finish until I get a nursing job. I finally started putting in applications at temporary agencies, and interviewed at Pappa's Seafood House yesterday, because I do not know what else to do. I have applied at every hospital nursing home, home health, LTAC/Rehab facility in the Houston area and around my house to no avail. I keep saying to myself, why am I even sober? I was just a pot head who drank on my days off. Now my credit is ruined, and I am broke. My mother is paying for my 180/month urine tests, cause I go three times a month every month. I am at a loss. No one is TPAPN friendly anymore. The only job I was offered in December right before Christmas was at a home health company, but my case manager shot it down, and said I could not do that job. All I could say was Merry Christmas.....lol If I had gotten that job, I would be almost through with in December for God's sakes. I never hurt anyone or diverted narcotics, nor am I an alcoholic. I have read the Big Book of AA twice cover to cover and have been involved in many book studies since, as a result of TPAPN requiring many meetings throughout the program. I found out that I have been living by the twelve steps and traditions my whole life because I was raised Christian, and am a good, honest person with a lot of integrity. I am so tired of being treated like a convicted felon, when I am clearly not one. I think TPAPN should be on a case by case basis, because I do not believe I belong here. I have spent over 15,000 dollars between my lawyer, Intensive Outpatient, and urine drug/alcohol screens that I know are going to be negative over the past 3 years. I suddenly had labels: cannabis dependent, and alcohol abusive. It's completely insane. If my mother had not been paying for my drug testing, I would have had to quit TPAPN a long time ago, because of the expense of the drug screens alone. I have not worked, and feel like I need to get out of nursing all together and finish my Bachelors in Psychology instead. It was not all bad though, I had to move back in with mom and dad, August of 2010, and it was just in time. My dad had a muscular dystrophy type disease process, and shortly after I moved in, I made sure my dad got a G-tube, after assessing everything. I helped take care of him full time at home until he died the end of last September from aspiration pneumonia. I worked my program and got to know my dad in a way that was priceless, and I thank God everyday that I could be there for him the way I was. He left me some money so I was able to move out and have my son move home with me from my sisters down the street from my parents. Life was good! I have stayed sober through it all, even though there have been a few times where an ice cold beer sounded really good. I have worked the program like they tell me too, and it works. I am grateful for all that, truly grateful! Since I cant finish school until I get a nursing job, I have got to get a job soon, or I am going to have to move back in with my mother. Something has got to give. The first thing the recruiter asked me in the phone interview was "do you have any restrictions on your license or has it ever been suspended or revoked?" Jeez.....I thought....that question is also on every application I have seen online in the last 6 months for every major hospital or facility in this area, which is new from 3 years ago. Since everything is online, you cant ever talk to anyone or get the chance to talk before an interview. Your application goes in the garbage and I have put in 700 applications in the last 3 years, without any chance of hope after TPAPN is mentioned, the job is no longer yours, if it ever was to start with. My few bad choices and TPAPN have ruined my nursing career, I am afraid. I do not know what else to do. Good luck to you! Bethany

Benadryl or Diphenhydramine is what is in Tylenol PM, but I am allowed to take Benadryl on TPAPN. It's one of the few things I am allowed to take. LOL I am afraid to put anything in my mouth, because of TPAPN.

I have been in TPAPN for two years and four months, and have only gone to the lab twice in one month twice. Every other month I tested 3 times. I have been tested 3 times in 8 days, two days back to back and then 5 days later again. Different Options 1, 2, and 3 at Quest Diagnostics.

FYI; For people in EEP, be grateful. When they say zero tolerance, they mean zero tolerance....I had to learn that the hard way. I was put into TPAPN for a trace of marijuana after a random for a patient telling the charge nurse that I was stealing her drugs. She was on Morphine, Xanax, Phenergan Temazapam, and Klonopin, mind you, a real psych case. I admitted that I smoked marijuana daily and drank beer twice a week on my days off. I was suddenly labeled Cannabis Dependent, and Alcohol Abusive, and my life has been a nightmare ever since. I was put in TPAPN and continued to drink on my days off. When they hit me with the 80 hour ETG test for alcohol, I was fired. I have been unable to secure employment, because of the restrictions that are insane, and I have been clean and sober since the start of my TPAPN program since March of 2011. I have tested 3 times a month every month but 2 of the 28 months I have been in the program at 60 bucks a piece. My mother has been gracious enough to continue paying for them even though she knows I do not need to be in this program, and we are fighting to change the rules so that they could put me in an EEP program since I have this much sobriety and time in the program. That way, they could drop the restrictions that are keeping me from being employed, and I could still work for a year to complete the program. There is no light at the end of the tunnel for me yet, but I keep praying about it. So, DO NOT DRINK either, because the ETG ECG test is an 80 hour alcohol metabolite test. Up to 5 days since your last drink is detected.

Since I have been in TPAPN for 27 months and still do not have a job because of their insane requirements which include not giving narcotics for the first six months of employment while in the program, not being able to float or work overtime, not being able to work nights unless you already do, then they can make an exception. You could have gotten clean and sober without TPAPN's help, trust me. All you need to do is go to 90 AA/NA meetings in 90 days, which is required, get a sponsor, and work the steps. TPAPN makes life miserable, and I am in it for a trace of marijuana. I never did narcotics or anything from the hospital, and I did not drink on my work days ever. TPAPN has ruined my career, it's better to not get them involved. And you are allowed 2 DWI's before they put you in TPAPN.

I am in TPAPN and if you are selected to test, by God you are expected to be there, and your employer has to understand that, or you will be considered non-compliant with the program. TPAPN sucks because I have been clean and sober for 27 months in the program and still can not get a job with the restrictions, and the requirements are completely insane. You do NOT want to go there.....trust me. If my mother had not paid for everything associated with the program, I would have had to surrender my license for non-compliance. I test 3 times every month except like 3 of 27 did I only go twice at 60 dollars a piece, and if you can not afford it, you are non-compliant for that too. No employers can deal with the restrictions of TPAPN, so I have yet to get a job. Do NOT even drink a beer, because they have an 80 hour test for alcohol, and when they say zero tolerance, they mean zero tolerance. So, I suggest you stay clean and sober while you are on this program...The only reason you are not already in TPAPN is because you were not working when you took the test, I guess. In TPAPN, you are allowed 3 no call no shows during the entire program, after that you are reported to the Board for non-compliance. They report ON the 3rd one. I hope this helps.

I live in Texas, and we have the Peer Assistance Program for Nurses.....AKA TPAPN. I had a similar experience. I had a drug addict patient tell the charge nurse that I was stealing her drugs, and she was on all kinds of drugs. Klonopin, Xanax, IV Morphine/Phenergan, temazapam, and some other downer prn...I can not remember, but I was tested also for a trace of marijuana. I was put into TPAPN while I still had a job, and then lost that job, because zero tolerance means zero tolerance, and they tested me for alcohol metabolites, called the 80 hr test, two days after a beer and was fired while in the program. I had no idea how bad it could get how quickly, when TPAPN got into my life. I refused to restart TPAPN, because I no longer had a job, broke my lease and had to move in with my sister. I have had a car repossessed, had to break an apartment lease, and had to live with my parents. I still do not have a job two and a half years later after restarting the program. I check my lab status everyday online, and know whether I have been selected for testing at 60 dollars a piece, and I go 2-3 times every month for the last 27 months. They will not let me out of the program until I work for one year....and with the restrictions of TPAPN, it is not looking like that is going to happen. It does not get any easier. My credit is ruined and if I did not have my mother paying for my drug screens, then I would not have been able to afford to do this program at all. I have learned so many things in the process, and it's been a blessing overall, but something has got to give. I feel that it should be on a case by case basis, and they should drop the restrictions at two years, so I could at least get a job.

I live in the Houston area, and all the magnet hospitals will only hire B.S.N. graduates or higher and test for nicotine now too as part of the pre-employment physical. This area is saturated with B.S.N. graduates because of the Medical Center downtown Houston, and all of the nursing schools in this area pumping out graduates, who can not get jobs here, unless they have experience or a B.S.N. That is just the way it is here. I have been doing TPAPN for over two years and have yet to get a job that meets TPAPN's criteria, so I have been pursuing my B.S.N., because I realized real quick while interviewing over the last two years that I would need one. I have learned a whole lot in this curriculum, but mostly how to research and how to use Word really well. It is a lot of busy work, but it takes dedication, discipline, and hard work to achieve. There were many things I did not know how to do on the computer before. But I have become the Microsoft Word/computer guru. That is all a Bachelor's degree means to me. It better prepares you for management, and professional leadership positions. It creates leaders. I recently found out that after going for a little over a year in the B.S.N. program that I have to have a job in order to be able to take the last two nursing classes before the final Capstone course. So, I am stuck in more ways than one.

I have been in TPAPN for a year and a half, and still am not employed. I have tried dialysis, and I even had my dad pay for me to do the Wound Care Certification, because they do not have to give narcotics either. I have finished all the wound care modules and have to send in the application, fee and reference letters...which I need more info on. I also got accepted into the UT Arlington RN to BSN program and started in May. I was relieved to know that school might be considered a form of work for TPAPN, because I am supposed to be through with the program in February, but they said they will not let me out until I have completed a year of work. Good luck with that is all I can say. I thought,well if I do not get a job by my two year date in February, then why could they not lift the narcotic restriction? I have been clean and sober the whole time I have been in the program, and have passed every test, they could at least do that. Narcotics were never a drug of choice for me, they scare me, because I have seen people withdraw off of them, and it's not pretty. I was just a pot head. I believe that should be taken into consideration, but it's not. They do not care, and they do not tell you anything. You have to figure everything out for yourself. They say that that is "part of the recovery process." Ok then, what do I do now?

In Texas, you have only have to report when you renew your license, but you are not reported to TPAPN which is Texas Peer Assistance Program for Nurses until your 3rd DWI.