So curious about correctional nursing now...

Specialties Correctional

Published

i have taken quite any interest to this side of the forum. it is very interesting indeed.

i have some questions. i was wondering if the facilities have an md on staff or are there just nurses? i may have seen one too many hbo originals, but if someone got stabbed or sexual assaulted-i was just wondering if you had to take care of that the best you could and then send to local hospital or if there was an md there?

how do new graduates fare in this specialty-if new grads are accepted?

and if there are any nurses that work corrections in the ny area-like westchester and boroughs-i would really love to hear your experiences, and if the facilities would allow new grads to intern or shadow there before one sits for the boards?

thank you. oh, and i tip my hat to you guys. i think it takes real strength and character to work in correctional facilities. sometimes, ppl like myself ^_^, get this idea about prison life and turn away from the work-you all have seriously got me thinking about it...even though i haven't even started nsg school yet. :yeah:

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Corrections.

I am in Oregon and we have physician hours depending on the amount of patients that each faciity has. Our smaller facilities have doctors for 4-5 hours one or two days a week. The larger facilities have providers for 8 hours 5 days a week. We have one physician on call every day and we have ambulance response within 5 minutes. If you see something that you know has to go to the hospital when the doctors are not there, you send them and call the doctor later in our faciity. Our correctional staff are certified in CPR and usually they are doing that while we get the IV started, O2 masks on the patient and applying the AED machine to the patient.

We use to not hire new grads to work in the facilities but it is getting harder and harder to find nurses to work with us that we are starting to hire them, but we put them with a mentor for a longer period of time.

Sonya

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thank you sonya for responding. i have been reading the threads and i know that ppl say that you shouldn't set your heart on one thing when you could very well just like another while in nursing school-but i can't help it. i'm kinda obsessed with this side now :D

thanks for the answer-curiousty gets the best to me:icon_roll

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Specializes in Correctional and MRDD.

I am a new grad myself, and I am a correctional nurse. They took me and trained me regardless my lack of experience. I guess every employer is different. I do love what I do, I get to practice pretty much every type of nursing in this field. You have your peds, kids that got in trouble at an early age and are encarcerated, they are still consider kids, and when there is something that we can't treat, we send them to Children's. You have people with nasty wounds, that you are the one that take care of it, there you go wound nurse. You have a huge population with several health complications, such as diabetes, heart disases, AIDS and tons of STD's, you have a big phych population as well. In correctional nursing there is drama, trauma and everything in between. I am blessed to work in this type of nursing. I just love it. :heartbeat And yes, we do have a doctor in regular basis, and after hours they are always on-call. Our doctor is great and very helpful and love to teach.

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wow! thank you-ure post was very informative.-answered majority of my questions.

i'm glad you are enjoying your new job-best of luck to you!

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