If you received an Order for a Chemical Dependency evaluation from the Kentucky Board of Nursing, chances are you have already received and been notified of a pending complaint against your license with the Kentucky Nursing Board.
Contact a nurse license defense attorney or an administrative law attorney licensed to practice law in Kentucky with experience handling Kentucky Nursing Board cases. I represent nurses before the Kentucky Nursing Board. See www.nursing-jurisprudence.com.
You can't just ignore or blow off an Order for a Chemical Dependency Evaluation. You can also contact Maureen Keenan, the Executive Director of the Kentucky Nurses Association for information and general assistance.
This post obviously ties in with the previous. It sounds like some of the calls I get from nurses who have been "accused of being an addict"!
Caller: Help me! I've been wrongly accused!
Me: I'm assuming you've been accused of substance abuse, diversion, and/or being addicted to a substance (why else would you call me?).
Can you tell me the circumstances which led to this accusation?
Caller: Oh sure! You believe the charge, don't you!?
Me: I don't know you, but I need additional information to know if I can be of assistance or who I can refer you to for assistance.
Caller: Sure you do, so you can report to the board of nursing, right?
Never mind that addiction is actually a disease.
Never mind that they might actually have the disease, rendering them incapable of recognizing they have the disease.
Never mind that the disease might make them unstable, prone to irrational emotional outbursts, or that the disease might actually be the reason for the complaint. No, I'm actually a part of the conspiracy to "get them".
Caller: If you're not careful and help me, i.e. fix all of this pro bono, I'll sue you and make sure you lose YOUR license!
Guess what? I already surrendered my license due to my disease, and that I now have 14 years of recovery, I am a peer assistance advisor for Ohio's nurse anesthetists, offer recovery mentoring services, and have my own consulting and advocacy firm for nurses impaired as a result of addictive disease.
Me: If you know what to do, why did you call me?
Caller: See! I KNEW you wouldn't help me. You probably hate addicts (?!?), don't you? You're just like those attorneys...you just want my money!
Why do nurses believe they should receive specific, specialized services for little or no charge? And why do they think it's OK to verbally abuse the very person they're seeking assistance or advice from?
If I ever figure those answers out, I'll pass them along.
Posted by: Jack Stem | July 04, 2009 at 11:52 AM
Jack,
You make some excellent points here. I recognize that having a complaint filed against your license is about as stressful as it gets to some and probably ranks up there with divorce, marriage, and other life changing events. However, there is assistance and information about there for you. Sometimes the information is provided for no cost by a State Nurses Association or available in an article, blog, or website. But you are right, if you want specific and specialized services then there is and should be a cost associated with the services.
Posted by: latonia | July 04, 2009 at 01:47 PM