What happens when your life blows up—and you still have to keep going?

Kara is a former U.S. Army medic turned civilian ER nurse who entered a state monitoring program and long-term recovery after a DUI in 2019. In this conversation, she shares what led up to it, what followed, and what it actually takes to move through the messy middle—unloading shame, rebuilding, and finding a way forward.

This episode explores the reality behind nurse monitoring programs, the weight of stigma in healthcare, and what rebuilding your identity looks like when everything shifts.

Topics: nurse felony, nurse monitoring program, recovery, stigma in healthcare

Key Moments:

Identity vs perception

What nurse monitoring programs actually look like day-to-day

The weight of shame and how it shapes recovery

Parenting while navigating legal and professional consequences

What people think happens vs what actually happens

Rebuilding identity after everything falls apart

This space exists for the conversations that aren’t happening publicly—and for the people navigating them.

If this resonates with you, you’re not alone… and there is space for you here. 💗

🎧 Follow along: https://www.instagram.com/felonurse

💗 Share your story (anonymous option available): https://beacons.ai/felonurse

FeloNurse is a podcast about what happens after a fall from grace.

Hosted by a nurse navigating the legal system, licensing consequences, and the messy reality of rebuilding a life after everything changes, this show explores accountability, stigma, recovery, and resilience in the healthcare profession.

Through personal storytelling and conversations with nurses, attorneys, addiction professionals, and others who understand these systems from the inside, FeloNurse opens conversations that are rarely happening publicly.

Because caregivers are human too.

And when they fall, they deserve more than silence and shame.

This space exists for the conversations that aren’t happening publicly—and for the people navigating them.

If this resonates with you, you’re not alone… and there is space for you here. 💗

🎧 Follow along: https://www.instagram.com/felonurse

💗 Share your story (anonymous option available): https://beacons.ai/felonurse