Would You Surrender Your Nursing License? RN to the End

Would you surrender your nursing license? Have you surrendered your nursing license? If so, why?

My motto is "RN to the end" but I am questioning under what circumstances would I be willing to surrender my nursing license. I worked hard for my nursing license and even harder my law licenses but I question under what circumstances if any that I would be willing to walk away.

Would I surrender my license if its suggested or would I be the one nurse who is screaming "if you want my license you will have to take it" or "give me liberty, give me death, but I am keeping my nursing license" at a State Nursing Board hearing?  

My recovery assistant, Jack "Jackie" Stem, is a former CRNA who surrendered his nursing license and privilege to practice as a CRNA in Ohio. He will tell you that if didn't surrender his nursing license, he probably would not be alive because of his battle a decade or so ago with addiction. He is proudly clean and sober and active in the CRNA recovery community. He will tell you, you can call him and he loves to talk:) that "life doesn't stop because you no longer have a state nursing license." Call Jack at 513-328-7253. He has turned his struggle into a career assisting nurses with recovery issues. See www.jackstem.com and www.peeradvocacyforimpairednurses.com.  

RN, LPN, and the APRN titles are protected by law so if you don't have a license you can't call yourself a "nurse" but even without a title, you have the education, experience, and training. Are you still a nurse at heart even if you don't have the State Nursing Board sanctioned title of RN, LPN, CRNA, NP, CNS, or CNM?

More and more of us are voluntarily surrendering our nursing licenses, most of the time it is because of a pending State Nursing Board complaint. Would you "go out swinging and fighting" in the event of a possible revocation of your nursing license or would you surrender your license?

For those of us who did surrender, what are you doing now?

In some states, a voluntary surrender is like a suspension and at some point you can apply for reinstatement of your license. You may have to sit for the NCLEX Exam again. Its more like a non-permanent revocation.

However in some states if you surrender, you surrender your privilege to practice as a nurse in that particular state permanently. Its a permanent revocation and surrender of your privilege to practice nursing forever and always.

What are your thoughts?