Advice on Correctional Nursing

OldMareLPN · Feb 22, 2009

Well, let me get on the soap box. First, you really shouldn't think of 'Correctional Nursing' as melting your two interests together. It really should be called Nursing in a Correctional Setting. There is no correctional to it, other than knowing when to defer to the CO.

As a new LPN, you really need to understand that you will be required to have immediate patient assessment capabilities as well as superb documentation from day one. A good interpersonal personality as well as phenomenal concentration when doing meds is a must. Read 'Surefire Documentation' from Mosby. Remember your correctional clients already have lawyers waiting to sue you.

IMHO, nurses in a correctional setting who treat their clients like inmates are their own worst enemy. That is the CO's job. To find a nurse with no friends find one whose security clearance has been pulled or is being sued.

The grass isn't always green on this side of the fence.

Good luck!

BMXMom · Feb 23, 2009

Thanks for the info. I have also been advised that jumping into nursing in a correctional setting isn't a good idea. I have been told that I may want to get some experience first.

OldMareLPN · Feb 23, 2009

Well, just a second. I think correctional nursing is great experience, and yes were I work they do hire new graduates. For them, they are a bit insulated from being alone in a position where they might get in trouble, like doing a med stat alone. But, each shift offers its advantages. There is alot of wound care done on th 7-3 shift, alot of sick calls on 3-11, and 11-7 is like working in a trauma center in a war zone. I've learned alot about seizures, etoh, and drug detox.

Each environment has its own challenges. I experienced my first 13 BS in LTC. I think I called EMT every day when I worked in LTC.

There are some great podcasts now for nursing education. Subscribe to Emergency Nursing Show Today and you will learn alot. Just remember to do things like they taught you in Nursing School every day and you will do ok. Don't give a med you can't write a drug card on from memory.

I bought a small notebook and pasted all sorts of diagrams from articles to help me. Like where to put ECG leads, where to give IM shots, how to document systems in a SOAP form and of course phone numbers. Thats my bible. I still haven't taken blood for labs, but that is something I need to start doing.

I personally think you should try CN, as you are going in with your eyes open. Check out www.correctionhealth.org and www.ncchc.org.

One fo the CO's just got his LPN, I wonder what he is doing.

Good luck

momofstudent, ADN, BSN · Feb 28, 2009

With 30 years of nursing experience in different fields, I have to say that corrections was one of my favorite places to work. I believe the clinic work is safer than walking most US streets. Remember you have trained corrections officers everywhere. I think the most important thing to remember about this field is that you are first of all a nurse and last of all a nurse. You are not a corrections officer, a judge or police officer. You are there to deliver healthcare alone. Your clients are human beings just like any human being in a hospital or on the street. Treat them as so, just as you would treat your brother. "There but for fortune go you or I"

I must also add that you will see things you have never seen before and you will learn to be strong or you will need to leave for another environment. Some of the people you will meet people never learned to care for their bodies, some will have long term untreated disease and untreated injuries. Some people will come from jail wards of county hospitals recovering from gun shot wounds, sometimes inflicted by a family member. Guards and inmates do not regularly wash their hands for lack of facilities or ignorance. And yes, you will see inmate on inmate violence and guard on inmate violence or threats that make your hair stand up.