Correctional Officer to Nurse

Specialties Correctional

Published

Hey Guys,

I am currently a Correctional Officer with the Sheriffs Department in my county. I have been in Corrections for about 5 years, 3 years state prison and the past 2 county jail. I have always wanted to be a nurse but life and bills kept me from being able to go back to school. This may sound crazy but I would like to work in a correctional setting once I finish school. I have a passion for both settings and I feel like I would be most happy working as a Correctional Nurse. I was wondering if you guys could give me any advice about which to do first. I thought about doing LPN first then work to gain some experience and at the same time do the bridge over to RN. My main concern is that I have read/heard a lot that nurses should not start in a Correctional setting due to not having certain skills. Should I do LPN first, go back to the Jail and work as I do the bridge over, or go straight into RN and then work in an ER setting for a year then go back to the Jail? Any thoughts, or advice would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the book that you had to read, lol. :)

Orca, ADN, ASN, RN

2,066 Posts

Specializes in Hospice, corrections, psychiatry, rehab, LTC.

If your ultimate goal is to be an RN, I would skip the LPN step. That is time you could be spending to get your RN degree, and the experience you got as an LPN would only be partially beneficial due to the differences in scope of practice.

About the practice issues: I have been in correctional nursing since 2001, but I didn't start there. I believe that correctional nursing is a good job, just not a good first job. It requires a degree of independence that a new graduate simply doesn't have. We see a lot of different things, but not enough of any one thing for a nurse to become proficient at it if corrections was his/her only experience. My suggestion is to get a year of hospital experience, then try corrections.

The ironic thing about my nursing career, and where I now sit, is that I initially went into nursing to get out of corrections. I had worked in and around corrections in several capacities (including correctional officer) for about 15 years. Now, here I am behind the fences again for the last 12 years. My nursing career has taken some strange turns over the years, but it has never been dull.

Thanks for the response.

I to am considering nursing to sort of get away from corrections. Although a little piece of me does not want to fully give it up? strange, I know! I have decided to go ahead and start my pre-reqs for RN. I am only 25 so I guess it would be better to go ahead and do it now and not wait until its to late. A part of me wants to work in Correctional Nursing because I think that I would be more comfortable in that setting because of the years I have in it already. I know that might not make any sense. I have a little soul searching to do I guess. Anways thanks for the reply :D

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