RAMP program question

 What is “ramp” program? 

Recovery and Mentoring Program

You need to post in Recovery forum. MODS can you please move post?

Ramp in NJ is 5 years. 

It does not allow nurses to work in critical care, including Emergency dept. Some nurses will be allowed to work in critical care type positions during their final two years, as long as you go through the program without any glitches.

You will need to only work day or evening shift no 11-7.  You may be allowed to work a longer shift during the day like a 10 or 12 hour shift.

If you have a narcotic restriction, you will have other challenges, although this is usually only for the first  6 months after you start working. 

You will not be able to work in wound care, because it is home care.

The reasoning behind the home care is you need to be directly supervised for the 5 years. Good Luck to you. 

Typically you will not be working in any nursing position for the first 4-5 months.  You will have to suspend your nursing license when you enter RAMP.   Depending on your evaluation you may be required to complete an IOP program and/or 90 days of 12-step meeting.  During the time you will undergo random drug testing , typically 3 times a month.  After completing this satisfactorily you will need to do a Return to Work process with you peer group (which you meet with weekly for 1 hour online throughout the program).  If they recommended that you are safe to return to work and your case manager agrees, then RAMP notifies the board of nursing that your license can be reinstated.  Many times there is a big delay from when the board is notified to when they actually reinstate your license.  You can not apply for any jobs until your license is reinstated and your case manager has to approve the job.  Many nurses in RAMP are employed  in dialysis, case management, office settings, and long term care.    Hope this info help.  Good luck!

Thanks for the info. Does RAMP assists you with job placement during this time? At this point, I'm just going to change careers altogether. After hearing all this, not worth going thru it for something I did not do. 

RAMP does not assist with job placement.   If during your evaluation you are diagnosed with a substance use disorder you can typically qualify for medical disability for a few months.   RAMP sometimes does pass on information about employers who are willing to hire RAMP nurses, but that does not help when you do not have an active license.

If you are considering changing careers to one that requires a license (even not in healthcare) not completing RAMP could cause issues with any other license requiring career.  There are many old posts on here regarding that and you should review those before you make any decisions. 

Miszsval

any updates?

Yes please do it 

I can't PM anyone but I wanted to know after the evaluation and the table talk ramp does, do you have to remain in the program until the board of nursing decides? 

jancon201 said:

Ramp in NJ is 5 years. 

It does not allow nurses to work in critical care, including Emergency dept. Some nurses will be allowed to work in critical care type positions during their final two years, as long as you go through the program without any glitches.

You will need to only work day or evening shift no 11-7.  You may be allowed to work a longer shift during the day like a 10 or 12 hour shift.

If you have a narcotic restriction, you will have other challenges, although this is usually only for the first  6 months after you start working. 

You will not be able to work in wound care, because it is home care.

The reasoning behind the home care is you need to be directly supervised for the 5 years. Good Luck to you. 

Hello,

do you know the process after the psych evaluation ? 

It depends where you are in the process. You may have to attend 3 months of weekly counseling sessions. Usually people also do their 90 meetings in 90 days at the same time. Once this is all completed they meet to decide if they will give your license back. It then goes to the board of nursing and in most cases takes a month or two to reactivate it.