Yes, on occasion, you can get out of your monitoring contract early. It does happen. Even though the contract states you can't apply to be done until a certain time, there is a possible way to get out early. I know some nurse is going to respond with the "exception to the rule" in which they were released a year early or something like that, but here is what is somewhat common. If you have a 5 year contract, yes you sometimes can get out 6 months early. If you have a 3 year contract, yes you can sometimes get out 3 months early. Even though your contract might say that you can't even ask to be done until the 3 or 5 year mark, there is a possible way. Again, I know some of you might have got out much earlier, but by in large, these are the norms for people that do get out early on the very, very, very rare occasion that it happens. But, it does happen on occasion and here is how.
I just completed a 5 year contract. I got out 6 months early. Finished at 4.5 years. First, you can't have ANY flaw during your monitoring. Not one. Zero missed check in's in 4.5 years. Not one. No more than one week vacation time per year. Obviously, no failed drug tests and no more than 2 diluted samples in the 4.5 years. Never was late for sending in a monthly report for my recovery meetings and never late from an employee quarterly report to the monitoring program. When I was 4 years and 5 months into my monitoring, I called my Case Manager in my monitoring program and reminded him of all of these things above about me. I asked him. Is there anyway possible I could complete this early as I have had zero issues and not only that, I had been teaching recovery for the past 2 years/leading meetings in the evening which is HUGE. It shows you actually take the 12th step seriously. He told me I needed to complete a 2 day in house comprehensive substance abuse evaluation at a facility that HE chose in my state. They do a battery of tests. It costs 3500 dollars. You meet with psychologists, addiction MD's, nurses, take several psychometric tests. They do a toenail test, urine drug screen, and hair sample test for drugs. They then write up a report, an extensive report on you and send it to your recovering program case manager.
My report was spotless. They stated I absolutely do not have a substance abuse disorder (Substance Abuse Disorder in Remission and Well Controlled) and here is the thing that helps, it's not just about NOT having a substance abuse order. I also had been TEACHING recovery, leading recovery groups for the previous 2 years and had letters brought with me from 2 recovery friends in my groups that I taught. I had letters from my Supervisor when I entered the Comprehensive Evaluation Testing for their 2 day stay. In the end, I had my report. I then met for an hour with my recovery program case manager a week later and he agreed to tell the Board of my situation and recommend me to be discharged from the recovery program. Now at this point, on most occasions, most Boards will still give the answer, NO. The Board can still say NO and half of the time, they do, but it's 50-50 here. About half of the time, they say yes. Here is the thing, 99% of people in monitoring programs will not go through these lengths 6 or 7 months out and never ask the Board, and many in recovery programs have had hickups along the way that prevents their case manager from even allowing them to go for comprehensive eval testing. But, if you meet the requirements above, there is a chance.
It worked for me. I was released 6 months early from a 5 year contract, so I can testify to this, there is a way. It has happened to get out early. It happened to me. But, if you think you are just going to "ask the board" 6 months early to be done, you are wasting your time. You have to go first through your Board Monitoring Recovery Program Case Manager and get all of the testing (if he or she agrees) and then after the testing comes back normal and your Case Manager agrees, you then approach the actual Board of Nursing with the question. It worked for me. The testing they give at the Comprehensive Eval Place are one's you can't fool. The drug tests are the easy part of course since you are not using and haven't used, but the psychometric tests have AI inputs that score where you are in recovery and how likely you are to be using or how likely you are at this point in time to have a significant problem, and the test scores for "Faking Good" and has internal measures to see if you are lying.
