Temporary Suspension of License for a Postive Drug Screen
Nurses that are on Board Orders for monitoring due to substance abuse or on a Board Order sending the nurse to TPAPN must be extremely careful with complying with their Board Order and with what they ingest because of the following section of the Nurse Practice Act (taken from the Board’s website at www.bon.state.tx.us). There is no provision to allow for an explanation that you mistakenly took a medication or that you were only taking cough medicine or whatever explanation is given for the positive screen. The Board will temporarily suspend your license and then you and your attorney will work on getting the issue resolved and your license unsuspended; so, it is much better to be careful to begin with.
Sec. 301.4551. Temporary License Suspension for Drug or Alcohol Use.
The board shall temporarily suspend the license of a nurse as provided by Section 301.455 if the nurse is under a board order prohibiting the use of alcohol or a drug or requiring the nurse to participate in a peer assistance program, and the nurse:
(1) tests positive for alcohol or a prohibited drug;
(2) refuses to comply with a board order to submit to a drug or alcohol test; or
(3) fails to participate in the peer assistance program and the program issues a letter of dismissal and referral to the board for noncompliance.
[Added by Acts 2009 (H.B. 3961), 81st Leg., eff. June 19, 2009]