B.C. nurses in recovery say punitive, dehumanizing return-to-work agreements have derailed their lives

Four times a day, in between full-time work as a nurse in a small British Columbia community and parenting her two children, Claire has to leave the room and blow into a breathalyzer.

Sometimes, she's asked for a random urine sample and must take 40 minutes out of her hectic day to provide it.

Facing challenging life circumstances, including the loss of two loved ones seven years ago, Claire began using alcohol to cope. Her drinking began to affect her work and she was convicted of impaired driving.

Claire's employer told her to agree to mandatory drug testing or lose her job.

CBC News is not using Claire's real name or naming her employer because she risks losing her job if she speaks publicly.

The mandatory drug testing is part of a return-to-work plan she had to sign three years ago to keep her job as a nurse, something she hides from her family and most friends. She pays about $350 out of pocket each month for testing at a local medical monitoring company, but others can pay nearly double that.

Claire is grateful to be in recovery, but says the treatment plan is traumatizing and health authorities' policies for staff who use substances are dehumanizing and coercive.

"Dignity and respect, it all gets stripped away for the sake of protecting the public," she said.

Claire is one of an unknown but significant number of nurses in British Columbia who have entered into what experts say are harmful substance-use monitoring agreements with their employer or licensing body in order to keep their jobs.

British Columbia isn't unique. Across Canada, nurses, doctors and other workers in safety-sensitive industries are subject to similar contracts.

A coalition of nurses and experts is calling on the B.C. Nurses' Union (BCNU) to pressure health authorities and the college to change the policies some experts say don't help keep patients safe and actually push much-needed qualified nurses from the field.

"It's based on fear, stigma and humiliation," said Candy Gorse, a board member for the non-profit Workers for Ethical Substance Use Policy (WESUP), who was forced off work as a nurse because her prescription pain medication violated her monitoring agreement.

WATCH | Why substance use policies for nurses are based in stigma, not science

A 2019 study found that the policies mean nurses are "not afforded the same rights to quality ethical health care as other citizens."