From the time I've spent here I know that some of you are nurses or other healthcare professionals, and now I have a question for you: To disclose, or not to disclose?

I'm due to renew my nursing license next month, and there is a question on the application that asks if you have any physical or mental illness that could affect your ability to practice. Not if it has affected it, or is affecting it......only if there was a ghost of a chance that it MIGHT.

There are a couple of problems with this. For one thing, I've been a nurse for over 15 years and bipolar for a lot longer than that; the only difference is that now I carry a diagnosis. For another, disclosing involves a lot of hassle which will probably necessitate my getting a letter from my pdoc attesting to my mental capacity to safely perform the duties of a nurse, and writing an essay of sorts explaining how I will be able to practice nursing as a psychiatric patient.

OTOH.....if I don't disclose, and if I were to be reported to the board of nursing---and in today's world, a nurse can be reported for any reason or just because somebody has it in for her---they'd probably yank my license. The BON has a long arm and they investigate all complaints, and they can look at your medical history, legal history and even credit history during the process.

Now, there is no way that anybody with even a halfway decent knowledge of medications could check my med list and NOT know that I am being treated for bipolar disorder. It's also no secret that I've had somewhere around a dozen visits with my doctor just in the past 9 months.....my insurance company likes to remind me of this by sending me health tips for people with my illness.

So, it's kind of a choice between the lady or the tiger: guess wrong, and I'm screwed.

My husband and sister say I should disclose. A couple of my nurse friends have told me not to because the BON can be so narrow-minded about mental illness, even though I've never come to their attention at any time during the 17 years I've been a licensed healthcare practitioner (first as a CNA, then as an RN). I'm at an impasse: I don't know WHAT the hell to do.

Have any of you who are nurses, doctors or other professionals faced this issue, and if so, how did you deal with it? What was your experience with your licensing board? And most importantly, what hoops did you have to jump through in order to keep your license?

Thanks in advance.