ReEntry Back into the Workplace

What type of universally systemic approach should be given to nurses with a history of discipline due to drug diversion?

As a recovering nurse, I have seen and heard many stories in my short journey back into my intended career path. I am also baffled by several aspects of the downfall and reintegration of a recovering nurse. I've seen, with specifically narcotic diversion, a wide array of penalties and pathways back to the profession. For simplistic reasons, let's just say a nurse took opiate pills and/or intravenous opiate medications. Some nurses are arrested on the spot and charged with two level 6 felonies and a class A misdemeanor. The plea deals and outcomes from this range from being booked and decided on one level 6 felony, to pre trial diversion and dropping of all criminal charges. Then comes the licensing board. You are afforded the opportunity to join an alternative to discipline program which mandates an assessment as well as some type of rehab program. With the likely suspension of license and later probation, comes the "blacklisting" of your name in the National Practitioners Data Bank. Your public litigation files will forever be viewable to any who want to dig into your history. You must also disclose your litigation documents to all future employers and interviews for jobs/furthering education applications.

Some people think all nurses who commit drug diversion should go to prison just like everyone else. They think the punishment should be maximized as medical professions, we are held to a higher standard. What I don't think people understand, is how tough the road back to practice is. You see opportunity, what you don't see is the financial and emotional toll of facing everyone from that day forward. I for one, can tell you the road back in tough. Everyone has their own reasons for doing what they did. Some nurses truly have been addicted your years. Some just started slipping drugs to take an edge of some part of their personal lives. I hardly knew of anyone who joined the profession just to gain access to drugs, nor did anyone want to end up in the monitored lifestyle.

Monitoring program-drug tests 16x42x3 years=$2,016

IOP Treatment Deduectable-$2,000

Board Attorney=$4,100

Criminal Attorney (If applicable)-$1,500-$4,000 (local quotes)

Lost Wages- 1 Year Suspension $60,000-$100,000 2 Year $120,000-$200,000

Possible Restitution if applicable

This is all the financial consequences. Many nurses have to leave the profession temporarily and take a huge pay cut, I managed to find myself a $45,000 job during downtime.

The emotional toll is greater. You have to face pretty much everyone from that day forward and explain why you aren't working where u used to or why you don't drink anymore. You have to make the public appearances at the board hearings and settlement conferences. You have to disclose your documents to everyone forever onward. You may not be able to apply for any type of advanced practice degree with the stamp of a disciplinary history (Good luck selling yourself to an interview panel, can be done though). Some are arrested and plastered on the local news. People will act different around you like if they say or do something, you will snap and

off on some huge relapse bender, when really it's not like that. For some it may, but the point is people will always see you differently. Only you really know what happened, how to make it not happen, and what the reality of it all is. Some people lose their families/friends/homes/cars from the loss of employment and getting behind on bills.

The question is, what do you think should happen to nurses who divert? Some say, punish them to the ends of the Earth, some say you make them go to an ATD program. Some say you arrest them too. Should they be afforded another opportunity, or should there be a one strike you're out system?