[brian]

Sacramento County Sheriff's officials and jail nurses declared a crisis Thursday in the jail's medical unit, which they say needs to hire more nurses to stem the spiraling costs of sending inmates to hospitals and calling in substitute nurses.


The nurses echoed points raised in a recent jail audit and grand jury report: more than 30 percent of nursing positions are open even as the jail's inmate count is rising.

"It's ridiculous," Ely Albalos, a nurse who has worked in the jail for 12 years, said after a Thursday press conference. "We can't meet the needs of the patients. We can't meet them."

The war cry comes as the California Nurses Association is locked in negotiations over a contract with Sacramento County. Sheriff's Lt. Scott Jones brushed aside questions about the timing of the press conference, emphasizing that nurses need back-up.

more: http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/s...15084988c.html

[irshnrse]

I just put in my resignation, unfortunately, because of unsafe working conditions at our county jail. I was one of two sick call nurses that go out to the pods and handle the general population which, as of yesterday, was 1641.

[srluke]

Brian,
I am one of those nurses at the sacramento county jail. While there is a shortage of nurses, the shortage is actually reflective of the shortage experienced everywhere. One of the problems that we are seeing is that the State of California is robbing the county of experienced nurses by offering higher pay, better perks... etc... to work in the state prisons. (Remember this is the same prison health care system that just went into court receivership.) To fullfill the needs of one location, they have to "rob" from another location making a shortage there where there had been none before.

The only way to resove the "crisis" is to make better use of the LVN's that are employed, as well as to increase the number of graduates (both LVN's and RN's) from the area nursing schools. In addition, RN's need to remember to treat LVN's with the respect that they deserve. After all, we're all on the same team.

srluke, lvn
sacramento, ca

[pickledpepperRN]

This was a series on Critical Patient Advocacy Issues Facing Correctional RNs in California

Article starts on page 22:
http://www.calnurses.org/publication...5_complete.pdf

Part II, “Threats to Correctional Nursing”
Page 21

http://www.calnurses.org/publication...n_feb_2006.pdf

[kileen]

Not only is there a problem with the nursing shortage in terms of staff nursing I know for a fact that the administrative jobs are hard to fill because the people presently in these jobs are so difficult to deal with. I don't know what it is about some women in nursing but it seems once they reach a position where they could influence some positive change they forget about their original intentions, if they ever had them, and allow power and buerocracy to corrupt them.
I am sorry to say this about my own but I have experienced it so many times it saddens me and that is why I retreat from any position of leadership.
'Power corrupts the minute you seek it' .

[Gabie Baby]

And of course no MALE would ever be corrupted by power.

[BROOK9960]

The truth is, I worked in 2 different prisons within a five year period of time as a guard and I am currently going to school to be a nurse and I would not even dream of working in a prison as a nurse. It is a joke! The state treats all of their staff, even the nurses, like crap. You could not pay me enough to go in there and work as a nurse after the horrible sexual harassment I endured by my supervisors as a guard and then a caseworker!

[mimer2861]

I just wanted to say thank you for putting the website of the two articles about jail nursing in California. I am in North Carolina and I cannot find one article dealing with jail nursing. It's not the greatest here either, but you think somone would write about it!