Why is the general feel to this board that the Board of Nursing is 'out to get' us

I worked with a provider who did IPN evaluations.

Let's just say he got out of it because of the corruption. He wanted to help patients and prescribed them things he thought would help. IPN tracks the % of people sent to a provider, and if they suggest monitoring. If the provider gets below 90% of suggesting monitoring, IPN harasses them and threatens to pull their ability to do assessments.

Wonder why they only give you 3 options? Those are their top earners in that area. As an evaluator, if you upset IPN, they will not send you patients. For some of the mental health counselors, this is a big portion of their income.

24 minutes ago, Ipnsux said:

I worked with a provider who did IPN evaluations.

Let's just say he got out of it because of the corruption. He wanted to help patients and prescribed them things he thought would help. IPN tracks the % of people sent to a provider, and if they suggest monitoring. If the provider gets below 90% of suggesting monitoring, IPN harasses them and threatens to pull their ability to do assessments.

Wonder why they only give you 3 options? Those are their top earners in that area. As an evaluator, if you upset IPN, they will not send you patients. For some of the mental health counselors, this is a big portion of their income.

Absolutely nauseating. There's no "recovery" in forced sobriety.

But unless EVERYONE plays the game, including the providers who do the evals apparently, life under the dictatorship isn't pleasant. But then again, did anyone think this wasn't a corrupt bunch of garbage?

I certainly didn't. When you've spent quite a few decades on this earth like I have, you can sniff out the garbage pretty quickly. The "business of recovery" is just that - garbage.

To the OP- you wonder why this forum seems to be “the BON is out to get us”.

This crap is why. The BON is not there for nurses, it’s to protect the public. Most BON push all discipline to the monitoring programs that have no oversight and have all these kick back schemes with the evaluators. If they truly cared about a nurse in recovery, they’d understand we are human and make mistakes. And would treat us with half the dignity we treat our patients with the same mental health/substance abuse issues.

The monitoring programs use scare tactics and straight up LIE to make nurses feel it is their only option. The put your license as a bargaining tool and if you have enough money, you can *** up many many times. If they cared about nurses who have addiction issues, they’d change their practice. In Florida, for physicians, the PRN program is non profit, and the list of providers is much more open, while IPN for nurses is a for profit system and very secretive.

Im glad the OP has had great results with their monitoring program. But you have to realize that some nurses that are referred to this are not addicts— they just ***ed up. Even with clean urine and hair tests, someone accusing you of being altered will get you into this mess. That’s what you see here. Frustrated people, fighting for their lives and licenses, being treated with cookie cutter treatments, with virtually no due process.

I have a slightly different take on the boards. I have worked with 2 boards on two separate occasions and I have never felt resentment towards them. They are there to protect the public, not to hold our hands. I am in this mess because I am in this mess and I am actually grateful that they are even giving me a chance to retain my license.

My ‘resentment’ if you will is not directed at the board. The board does nothing more than ‘enforce’ and that’s not even the best word, the current legislation regarding the nurse practice act. The MO is that when presented with a nurse that may have an issue of some sort or have violated the nurse practice act in some way, they are shunted to the varying forms of monitoring programs for evaluations and there starts the roller coaster. Ideally that evaluation process should result in an impartial recommendation regarding the necessity or lack thereof of treatment and/or monitoring. Many times, at least in my experience, that is not what happens at all.

In my state, the monitoring program is very very powerful and runs rampant over people’s lives and with no oversight. It is a for profit organization whose apparent goal is simply to make money.

My only issue with the BON is that they are who has the wherewithall to reel them in and they don’t.

I would like to hear from those in programs that are actually run by thier respective BONs. I’d wager that it might not be as horrible an experience as I have had.

The panel of the "Board" is wonderful. They are fair, or they were to me. The people we are actually supposed to work with in building that houses the employees that work for DOH/MQA never know anything.

All they do is issue the license. They may actually have people assigned to the education department, but ask them a question. All you will get is, "I don't know." Same with IPN... Thousands of us have come through their program, from all walks of life, in various positions (good and bad), all sorts of backgrounds, but ask them a question. You'd think you were the first nurse to ever go through it. They are no help, no advocacy. Anything you get, you get on your own. Except, "I don't know." They'll tell you that all day long, free of charge.

6 minutes ago, Persephone Paige said:

Same with IPN... Thousands of us have come through their program, from all walks of life, in various positions (good and bad), all sorts of backgrounds, but ask them a question. You'd think you were the first nurse to ever go through it. They are no help, no advocacy. Anything you get, you get on your own. Except, "I don't know." They'll tell you that all day long, free of charge.

Hah! I’m pretty sure the ‘I don’t know’s aren’t free. There’s a charge for them somewhere. Frankly I’m surprised that every letter or phone call isn’t postage due or collect. ****, I shouldn’t give them ideas...

On 3/14/2019 at 12:42 PM, Oldmahubbard said:

From an outsider's perspective, just my impression from reading the threads, it seems about 50/50. About half say the program saved their lives and the other half seem to say it's overkill.

50% Try to change. The other 50% will have a never ending list of complaints about their life.

I can garauntee that none of my complaints are about my life and never have been. My complaints are about the programs and how they are run. My life is pretty darn good but that is in spite of this nightmare. I have crawled out from the abyss of what these people did when I asked for help. The appropriate therapy and medication that I desperately needed? I found that myself. The financial wherwithall to pay for the cluster **** of BS the program put me through for the last several years. My fantastically fabulous if a bit overprotective family. The money to support myself when the program essentially prevented me from working. Family. The emotional support when I had no choice but to take a crappy job 2 hours away from them because it was all I could get? Family. I could go on. No AA or whatever has the credit. My folks and my shear stubbornness of not letting these crooks take from me something that I worked so hard for gets that.

so no, this entire thread is not about ‘people complaining about their life.’ As has been said before, we are merely venting about an unfair and in many cases abusive set up that perplexingly seems to be “nurses targeting nurses.” Sometimes with anger and sometimes with the wry sense of humor that is the mark of nurses who have been to “war” and back.

As has has been said in other threads, great that you are so gung-ho recovery. More power to you and I wish you well. But get this though your skull....Not everyone on this ride are addicts. AA is not the be-all-end-all gospel that has all the answers. If it does for you. Great, glad you’ve found all the answers.....for you!

I’m not well versed in AA but I’m pretty sure there’s a lot about humility in there. My opinion, in answer to yours ( as you seem to have lots of them) is that perhaps you ought to re-read those parts.

Sounds great! glad you have great life!

Having individualized plans for every person seems pretty challenging, especially when you are talking the numbers they are.

What do people think is a better choice?

1 hour ago, LilPeanut said:

Having individualized plans for every person seems pretty challenging, especially when you are talking the numbers they are.

What do people think is a better choice?

The big one would be not forcing people to see evaluators that are clearly in the pocket of the program. Ones that clearly stand to benefit financially by what they “recommend.” Not forcing people into evaluation and treatment situations where they cannot use thier insurance. Actually listening to the recommendations made by a truly impartial evaluator. If such a person says no monitoring, then dang it...no monitoring. That alone would create the “individualized contracts” that programs trumpet about. There’s a myriad of reasons that bring people into monitoring. Why treat them all the same? If they want to mandate that the evaluator be an addiction psychiatrist, for example or to have certain credentials, fine..but let them pick thier own.

The basic tenets of most contracts are fine...see a therapist, medication management, some work stipulations (although not the cookie cutter ones they have now), etc. with Treatment (in or out patient, if TRULY indicated. The quarterly reports to be sure said participant is compliant. All fine.

Toxicology testing, sure, not an issue...in certain situations, but not across the board. It’s a huge expense for the people who are here for reasons that have ZERO to do with drugs.

There’s just so many parts of these programs that are intertwined with the seamy underbelly of the recovery industry.