SookieBSN

I agree with Ms. Blondie above: You will most likely get reported. It may take month, it may take a year, but the board will find you. The problem is the Board has no way of knowing if this is one isolated incident or a symptom of a much bigger problem. If you are being monitored in MD, you will need permission to practice for clinicals if that is required in your PhD program. The program in MD is one of the better ones, but it is five years long and there are very few exceptions to that term. Finding a job in MD with a contract is difficult but not impossible, even for a new grad. Good luck.

Although there are some monitoring boards that are in fact that anal. It does not take a large amount of money to test for many, many different medications. You can get a very thorough urine drug test for just under $100 through FirstLab. Take OTC Benedryl while participating in one of the monitoring programs on the East Coast and not have a "prescription" from your doctor to use it, and the monitoring program will not be pleased. The whole reason they don't tell you what they are testing for is because they expect you to be honest up front.

Yes, antidepressants do show up on drug screens, but it is often as a false positive. All positives have to be confirmed, which then confirms the the medication you are taking. So if they asked you to disclose what antidepressants you are on, you don't, and then your urine screen comes up positive for an antidepressant, you may be terminated. (Examples of antidepressants that cause false positives: Zoloft - benzodiazepines, Pristiq - PCP (U S Food and Drug Administration Home Page)). Always better to be honest, in my humble opinion.

I assume the positive was not a drug that is easily explained like opiates or amphetamines. Definitely a lot of what ifs....I do know of one occasion where a doctor was brought in to the hospital he worked at after overdosing on heroin at home. He was reported. Another one that I just thought of was a doctor who was in a car accident caused by him drunk driving. He was also brought into the hospital he worked at. Lots of circumstances can exist.

[COLOR=#000000]Your manager may not be avoiding the situation, she may be gathering evidence. But I am not there and do not know the specifics of the situation. I would continue to present your manager with evidence of impairment, while keeping copies of any documentation for yourself. I admire your willingness to confront and/or help your coworker. In my opinion, interventions with medical practitioners can be tricky. The best outcome is the person gets help, becomes a competent practitioner again, and no patients are injured. I know of two cases where interventions were conducted for a nurse and then the nurse was allowed to go home unsupervised. In these two cases the nurses both went home and committed suicide. People, especially nurses and doctor's who have access to powerful narcotics, should never be left alone after an intervention. I am sure the OP did the best he/she could and this is in no way meant to be judgmental about the OP's actions. Sadly, many impaired doctors are escorted to treatment by their employers, but many impaired nurses are escorted to prison by their employers. OP, please keep us updated. I hope your employer does the right thing. [/COLOR]

Two things that I can think of: 1. Call the lawyer who handled your case and ask him/her. May take a few days, but they generally keep files for about 10 years. 2. Do a judiciary case search for your state. Although, this will not work if the charges were expunged or the case is sealed. Hope this helps.

And with this last comment, I am done. To those who have posted constructive comments, I thank you. I have definitely learned a lot from this experience. I have learned to protect my license at all costs and to listen to my gut when something does not seem right. I have also learned that AN is an open public forum for anyone to use. I expected some measure of professionalism from fellow nurses. Instead, I learned that using anonymous user IDs brings out the worst in some people. Lesson learned.

Please indulge me with your intense wisdom...which nursing code of ethics and which part of the nurse practice act did i violate? What exact nursing practice did I perform to endanger the patient?

I did bring up the issue of liability to the doc/owner. His answer was, "You have a nursing license don't you?" Yes. "Then why can't you provide nursing care?" I let the doctor and the nurse manager intimidate me. I believe my desperation for a nursing job clouded my judgement. This has definitely been a learning experience.

Okay, so your job as a "Guide" is what? Yes, I have been out of the "hospital setting" for over two years. Therefore, I have found it very difficult to get a position in a hospital despite six years in a NICU. Due to present circumstances, I am looking for a day shift, weekday position. This generally limits me to an office nursing position. In the area I live, I have found most office job positions are listed on craigslist and/or indeed.com. This may/may not be the right place for me to look. My operative experience was in the NICU. The operative procedures I assisted with were at the bedside. My duties during these procedures were mainly to obtain instruments needed and to recover my patient. The nurse manager was aware this was the totality of my PACU experience. I did not "volunteer" to work. I walked into a situation I felt was an on-the-job interview and did my best to "impress" the person hiring. Retrospectively, I should have left. For some reason, I felt bad that they would have to cancel the two procedures. Plus, multiple other employees at the facility (ST, doctor/owner, and nurse manager) promised they wouldn't let me drown. I was in the storage closet for close to four hours. I was in the process of organizing the meds from oldest to newest when I noticed they were expired. I'm sitting here trying to figure out why I am justifying this to you. Does it make you feel better about yourself that you have to tear down someone that needs to look on craigslist for a job? Would you rather I sit on my butt all day and collect welfare? If you don't like the thread, and don't have anything positive or constructive to say, move on!

Found it! I changed my profile. Thanks for pointing that out.

Did I refer to myself as a male? Can you tell me where so I can fix it? I looked on the homepage and couldn't find it. You are absolutely right, I do need to get a life. What I really need is a job, but that is taking a little longer than I expected. No, but really, I've had some really odd experiences these past few months and I'm really not sure why. Those were the two weirdest ones. My husband claims it is because I am applying to jobs advertised by craigslist that are anonymous. I know I should have just walked out of that ASC, but I think I am getting so desperate for a job that I tried to stick it out. I have an interview with a urology group tomorrow. Hope nothing weird happens!

So I am still fairly new to AN, so if I do something wrong please let me know what it is and how to fix it. So I have been looking for a nursing position for approximately 10 months. In the past 10 months I have had some of the oddest interview and job shadow experiences. For example....about three weeks ago, I interviewed for a PACU position at a small ASC on a Wednesday. She invited me to job shadow for the next two days. The first day went really well. I felt very comfortable with the position and really thought the job would be a good fit for me. The next day, Friday, I show up to job shadow to discover that I am the only nurse on for that day. So I am the it girl for pre-op, OR, and the PACU. We only had two procedures with one surgeon, so not a bad day. We finished up around 3:00 pm and since I was asked to shadow until 7:00 pm, I asked the nurse manager how else I could help. I was asked to organize a storage closet. Odd I thought, but went along with it. Maybe she wants to see how I "think outside the box." In the storage closet, behind boxes of toilet paper and old charts, there were boxes and boxes of expired fentanyl, propofol, dilaudid, brevital....It was insane. So I finish up organizing the closet (it's a little after 7:00 by this time) and I tell the nurse manager I was finished. I bring up my "little discovery" and ask if she needs help disposing of the controlled substances (which would have taken hours if we had to dump them all down the drain.) She smiles, says that I did good work, and says she will call me to let me know if I have been selected for the position. Needless to say, despite a thank-you note and two follow-up e-mails and one follow-up phone call I have not heard back from this job. So was I just completely used because she had no one else to work that day? Has anyone else had a weird interview or job shadow experience?

So I had to dig a little bit (I couldn't remember exactly where I read it), but if you go the Virginia Board of Nursing website and look up Case Decisions you will find examples of nurses who have been disciplined for failing to disclose that they had been terminated from a former employer on a job application. These nurses have been disciplined for violating "The Commonwealth of Virginia - Regulations Governing the Practice of Nursing" - specifically regulation 18 VAC 90-20-300(A)(2)(e) which states: "The board has the authority to deny, revoke or suspend a license or multistate licensure privilege issued, or to otherwise discipline a licensee or holder of a multistate licensure privilege upon proof that the licensee or holder of a multistate licensure privilege has violated any of the provisions of 54.1-3007 of the Code of Virginia. For the purpose of establishing allegations to be included in the notice of hearing, the board has adopted the following definitions: (e) Falsifying or otherwise altering patient, employer, student, or educational program records, including falsely representing facts on a job application or other employment-related documents," They are also violating the 54.1-3007 (2), (5), & (8) of the Code of Virginia. I hope this helps. Obviously this is usually not the primary reason a nurse is disciplined, but it is usually an add on.

I am very surprised the Board of Nursing in your state would give you any reassurances without knowing the particulars of your case. Not to scare you, but the hospital in which you are currently working for could have a list of mistakes they are keeping track of. These mistakes could constitute violations of the nurse practice act in your state. In my opinion, I would lay low and get into better standing with your hospital and then resign in good standing. That way you don't have to worry about the board of nursing, because trust me you don't want to go that route. I just want to add another quick piece of advice....In some states (Virginia being one) it is a violation of the nurse practice act to leave an employer off of an application. It is also a violation to misrepresent why you were terminated. This violation will institute disciplinary action that may then become part of your permanent record. Not good. An application for a job is a legal document. It is best to write that you were terminated and then write "willing to discuss at interview" for reason. Just some thoughts....

Thank you all for your comments! Just for clarification, the nurse recruiter was a clinical nurse at the facility at one time. I remember her taking care of me in the ward (she has a very distinctive name that you would never forget.) I'm not sure if this is how she has access, but she does. So I did leave a message with risk management stating I would be reporting this as a HIPPA violation. Two days later I received a phone call informing me that the nurse recruiter had now been terminated. I feel bad...I guess in some ways I feel that this whole scheme of looking into records couldn't have been entirely her idea. I'm sure I am not the only applicant she did this to. To make things worse......I currently live in the Washington DC greater metro area. This area has recently implemented CRISP. It is a healthcare information exchange. You are able to request a list of people who have accessed your account for free once a year. So I did this eight weeks ago. I received my list yesterday. I couldn't believe it, my former employer accessed my account three time the year before I left. (And no I was never a patient at this practice.) I would like to believe they were only confirming my medical absences, but still....I really don't feel I can report them because I rely on their references for my next job. The whole reason I have brought up these two incidents is because I know I am by no means special. If this has now happened to me on two separate occasions, then I fear this has become a wide-spread problem. Please protect your privacy.

Funny. I wish this was some random story that I had made up. Maybe then I would still feel like I had some privacy in this world.

Hello group! This is my first post on AN so bear with me! So...I have been applying for a nursing position at a hospital less than a mile from my house since 2009. I have never received so much as a response from human resources. So about a month ago, I felt the initiative to call the nurse recruiter and get an idea of how I could improve my resume/application. During our conversation, the nurse recruiter let slip that she didn't think I could handle a nursing position due to "my numerous ER visits." I contacted Risk Management at the hospital and they confirmed that this nurse recruiter had in fact accessed my medical record four times. The lady at risk management said she would "take care of it." As of yesterday, the nurse recruiter is still in her current position. I feel completely violated. Is there no privacy anymore? So my questions is: Should I continue to pursue this through other means...i.e. reporting this as a HIPAA violation? Risk Management is no longer returning my phone calls. Thank you, Sookie