Will I be punished forever

Nurses Recovery

Published

Specializes in Cardiology, ICU.

Hi Everyone,

It's been years since I've been on here. I self reported in august of 2013 to HPRP (Michigan), stayed in the program for almost two years. I dropped for financial reasons. I will receive my 5 year sobriety chip this coming August. I also have ovarian cancer and am finishing up chemo. This cancer scare has prompted me to re-evaluate my life and how I want to spend whatever time I have left. So I decided to take the steps to work with addicts, considering I have walked the walk.

Let me clear, I have no desire to return to nursing!

However, every avenue that I consider taking, whether it's getting certified at a peer recovery coach or getting a bachelors in something related, will eventually require that I either get certified or licensed. But my RN license is suspended. How do I navigate through this? Would I have to bring my nursing license back to good before I could get licensed or certed in something else? Because if that's the case, I cannot afford to drop 20k for a licensing lawyer and I might as well forget about having a career at all.

You would think that because I'm trying to stay within the addiction field, that the BON wouldn't care. But I'm pretty sure they do. So who makes the final call about this, the nursing board or the board that I'd get a new cert/license from?

I just need some advice or stories or anything at this point! Thanks in advance!

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When I decided to go to grad school to get my license as an addiction practitioner (a branch of counseling), I called the licensing board and they told me that I had to have a clear nursing license, so I would have to finish monitoring. I am able to go to grad school while in monitoring, but all of my clinicals have to be approved by monitoring. If I graduate before I finish monitoring, my counseling license will be subject to monitoring as well, as well as potential discipline.

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Specializes in Cardiology, ICU.

Well thank you for your answer. I kind of assumed that and unfortunately, there just isn't a way (short of winning the lottery) I will ever be able to do that. I'd have to pay for refresher courses and retain a lawyer to get my license back in good standing, nor can I go back to school for anything due to a six figure defaulted student loan debt. I guess I'm stuck in the restaurant biz. Hindsight is 20/20

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Well thank you for your answer. I kind of assumed that and unfortunately, there just isn't a way (short of winning the lottery) I will ever be able to do that. I'd have to pay for refresher courses and retain a lawyer to get my license back in good standing, nor can I go back to school for anything due to a six figure defaulted student loan debt. I guess I'm stuck in the restaurant biz. Hindsight is 20/20

There was a class action lawsuit filed against hprp in Michigan. I just downloaded it. Read it and call the attorneys associated. Maybe it can help.

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Yeah,

I think you have to clear your nursing license before you get another from the state. This stinks because it seems like you could really help some folks. As you know these programs are a horrid pain in the butt (not to mention expensive) so you really need to weigh your options. Maybe you could get a job as a nurse helping patients with addiction issues to help fund this monitoring fiasco? I wish you luck!!!

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The BON can take your license but they can't take that degree you worked for! You may not be able to get licensed but you degree in applied science should could for something.

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Specializes in Cardiology, ICU.

Yes, this is true! I try to flaunt the fact that "something" to offer because I have a degree. But everyone does a background check, so if the suspended license doesn't make them worry, it will be my credit that gets me the boot. I interviewed for OutBack Steakhouse a few years back and made it through 3 interviews. It was a position for a general manager for which I have the qualifications (I even told them my credit/background) and everything looked really good, but then ultimately, they didn't move forward because of this. This has happened over 15 times, which is why I have been sticking with serving. But I will keep my head up! Thank you for your reply

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Yes, this is true! I try to flaunt the fact that "something" to offer because I have a degree. But everyone does a background check, so if the suspended license doesn't make them worry, it will be my credit that gets me the boot. I interviewed for OutBack Steakhouse a few years back and made it through 3 interviews. It was a position for a general manager for which I have the qualifications (I even told them my credit/background) and everything looked really good, but then ultimately, they didn't move forward because of this. This has happened over 15 times, which is why I have been sticking with serving. But I will keep my head up! Thank you for your reply

For what it's worth, my credit score has never stopped me from getting a job...and I have a bankruptcy, a repo, countless old medical debts, and several judgements against me. I will never get it cleaned up., and I haven't taken new credit in years because of it. But I cannot help medical debt or getting sick. When I was in monitoring limbo. I was able to be a substitute teacher which paid $70/day and work in a daycare as a preschool teacher for $9.25 an hour. But at the time, with my IOP bill and all the monitoring $$ requirements, most of my check went to those. I was interested in serving because I felt it could pay more, but I had no luck because I had zero experience in that.

I'm attempting to cash flow my graduate degree, and I'm doing it by picking a super cheap school and going as slow as possible. I'm not allowed overtime, so I can't work it that way, but I do have a small etsy business that I do in my spare time that helps a bit. When I don't have enough for school, I just have to pause and try to save. It's awful, but I'm hoping I will make it one day.

If I could go back in time and kick my own a**, I totally would. But I can't, so I try just to find meaning in my life where I can, which isn't easy. I'm still waiting for the shame to abate; I don't even feel proud for 17 months clean and sober, because I was just so reckless with me and my family's livelihood.

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The BON can take your license but they can't take that degree you worked for! You may not be able to get licensed but you degree in applied science should could for something.

I should really proofread, haha. It should say "Your degree in applied science should count for something when looking for a job."

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I thought the only jobs that ran credit checks were federal jobs and jobs working with inmates. I've never had any place run a credit check on me.

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I thought the only jobs that ran credit checks were federal jobs and jobs working with inmates. I've never had any place run a credit check on me.

My last 3 hospital jobs ran credit checks. I can't say what would exclude someone for a job with one though, because I have every kind of bad credit and have gotten those jobs. My current job even used a big reference company of some sort, needed every known last address since childhood, and other ridiculousness. I thought I was screwed, being in monitoring with burned toast for a credit score, but I was hired. So honestly, I don't even know what they would be looking for to exclude someone with credit-wise.

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Specializes in Cardiology, ICU.

I can just feel your tension in your writing! It's really messed up what we did with our careers but you're right, sometimes we need to take baby steps.

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