[ex1140]

I'm currently working for a prison in SW Florida. At first things were good I was happy about going to work and then the changes started. Companies were coming and going so fast that we couldn't keep up...and now employees that have been around for 10 and 14 years are leaving. The medical department is understaffed and people are constantly calling off including myself. Well, my supervisor likes me...probably because she doesn't have to work when I'm on with her.

Case in point...the weekend before last I was called to come out on the compound to pick up an inmate that had fallen. The officer and I went out to get the inmate we didn't have a stretcher because it's broken so we had to use a rolling chair...and when he finally got back to the ER room the mans vitals were very low.

Get this...my supervisor starts medicating the diabetics...no assessment...she doesn't call me to do the diabetics, no she does them. So, I have to return to the infirmary for something and she's finished the diabetics and know she's smoking a cigarette...Now all the while the 6 am pill line is supposed to be in progress...and guess who's the pillline nurse? She finally calls the doctor for this inmate.

He's a 60 something year old who's apparently thrown himself down the stairs and broken his hip not to mention a few other things and his pain is off the chain...at this time our facility is using a designated hospital so he has to wait for the ambulance to arrive and of course it takes longer than usual. This inmate arrived in medical around 5:30 am and didn't leave the prison in route to the hospital until 7 am. I was off the next day, but my supervisor called me from work that night to tell me that the inmate died. I am still employed at this facility, but I 've cut my hours to 2 days per pay period...until I can find something better.

[**nurse**]

Ugly. Working anywhere it's nice to have the feeling that good care happens. Sounds like this place will be worse when you leave. Sometimes the care comes back up. Good luck to you.

[Mudwoman]

I can't get out of prison nursing fast enough. I just graduated from Excelsior and I'm just waiting for all the paper work so I can take NCLEX. Our prison doesn't employee RN's, so thankfully, I'm educating myself out. I have seen lots of good nurses come and go. There are a couple of really good nurses that work with me now and it is just until they can find something else. The marginal nurses will be there from now on. Sad.

[VegRN]

Originally Posted by Mudwoman

I can't get out of prison nursing fast enough. I just graduated from Excelsior and I'm just waiting for all the paper work so I can take NCLEX. Our prison doesn't employee RN's, so thankfully, I'm educating myself out. I have seen lots of good nurses come and go. There are a couple of really good nurses that work with me now and it is just until they can find something else. The marginal nurses will be there from now on. Sad.

How is it that the prison doesn't employ RN's? I thought that there had to be an RN supervising during each shift?

[Mudwoman]

Originally Posted by VegRN

How is it that the prison doesn't employ RN's? I thought that there had to be an RN supervising during each shift?

We are the Department of Community Corrections. We do not have a DON. We do have a Health Services Administrator and she is an RN, but doesn't do direct patient care and is there from 7am-3pm. We have someone in the district office that we can call if we need someone. How can this be? Money. Always comes down to the money.

[texascowgirl]

oh i have had inmates die, because no one would listen to me-they said i was being "naive" and being "manipulated"..HA! i am a former detox and psych nurse-i am far from naive or easily manipulated. i had a trauma ICU background and have excellent clinical assessment skills......its kind of hard to fake vital signs and certain other clinical indicators of severe systemic disease.......yeah....but all i would hear is "oh he has been putting in sick calls every day just to get out of seg"........
i have seen this MANY times..........and dont get me wrong, i dont "care" about inmates-i am not an "inmate lover". i simply deliver basic health care, what they have rights to, and practice according to the Nurse Practice Act, whether my patient is incarcerated or not.
yeah. welcome to correctional health. it can be corrupt. but i still love it