Any Nurses Working In Florida Correctional Facilities Near Tampa??

Blackcat99 · Feb 2, 2004

:eek:

Tampa area!! Please be careful! I had a friend who use to live in Tampa and she said that the Tampa area is a very high crime area. Best of Luck to you.

LoriAnnRN · Feb 6, 2004

Hi Gary! I live and work in the Tampa area. There are two very large county correctional facilities (one in Hillsborough Co. and one in Pinellas Co.) but all of the prisons are out in the boondocks. There is Coleman Correctional Facility up near Bushnell, FL, which is about 2 hours north of Tampa. I think that is the closest one to Tampa. I am thinking, however, that they only hire RN's. Good luck to you; I think the Bay area is great.

John-LPN · Feb 6, 2004

Hi Gary -

I am also thinking of Deptartment of Corrections in Florida. Yes Florica does hire LPN's in all facilities. You can check out the website at:

http://Http://www.myflorida.com and click jobs. There you can follow to the Dept. of Corrections Openings.

I am Licensed in Florida as well as New York.

Good Luck

GARYLPN · Feb 7, 2004

Thanks to all for the info on Tampa! I am looking forward to the move. I'm sick of cold dreary weather!!

Blackcat99 · Feb 8, 2004

:chuckle I looked up some of those LPN jobs in Florida just for fun.

It said LPN'S may do work such as massages. I think that's going too far when LPN's are required to give inmates massages. :kiss

Blackcat99 · Feb 10, 2004

:chuckle Hi John and Gary

When you get to Florida please let us know about LPN's and massages. I am wondering if that is a back massage or if LPN's are now required to give full body massages to these inmates? :chuckle :chuckle :chuckle

GARYLPN · Feb 10, 2004

Hi Blackcat,

I've been working in corrections for a number of years and have yet to give another man a massage, however, if I were an LPN in a nursing home and a sickly geriatric male patient asked for a back massage should I refuse? Assuming you are a female nurse would you refuse to give a geriatric female patient a massage because of your same sex gender?

If I recall my nursing school of which I have been in before and still am nowhere do I recall any instructor dictating that we as nurses have a right to choose who to give quality care to and who not to.

Now if I translate all that into working in corrections and I have an elderly inmate patient who is confined to the bed should I refuse to give that elderly patient a backrub only because he is an inmate?

So, now I guess I have to wonder, what's next? I won't give a back massage to an elderly patient in a nursing home because he's old, or because he smells or because his family wasn't very nice to me that day?

Would I simply give out backrubs to every inmate who moans wanting a backrub? I highly doubt it. Would I give an elderly sick inmate who is confined to the bed and who perhaps has only days or weeks to live a backrub if he requested it?? You bet I would because my nursing license and the pride I take in being a nurse dictates that I won't play judge and jury against an inmate and I will always give the best nursing care I can give no matter who it is.

I refuse to give "selective" nursing care to any patient and if I start doing that I might as well throw my nursing license in the trash and go be a truck driver.

One thing I do have to wonder about though is if I were on the street and someone needed my help as a nurse should I first question that person regarding his or her background? Were they ever in prison or jail, is that person getting ready to go to jail? Has that person ever broken the law?

Gee whiz I guess if any of the answers are yes should I make a determination of which kind of nursing care I'm going to give at that point?

I highly doubt it.

Blackcat99 · Feb 12, 2004

:chuckle Hi Gary

I have to admit that you gave a great reply! I do love the elderly. Even I would give an elderly inmate a massage!

GARYLPN · Feb 12, 2004

Hi Blackcat,

Actually in a lot of ways it's absurd to think of giving an inmate a backrub although I would certainly give an elderly dying inmate confined to the bed a backrub. The younger healthy ones could forget it. They can get their cell buddy to give them a backrub.

I actually like your sense of humor. It's like backrubs??? What's next happy hour at 5:00 with 50 cent draft beer???

I sometimes get disgusted at some of the liberties given to inmates knowing that they get free medical care when there are millions of elderly people in this country who can barely afford health care but I always keep in mind that it's not my job to worry about that.

And I can't totally blame the inmates. This country developed a prison system that puts people in prison over the slightest infraction and since we do that it is then up to the taxpayers to support the prison system which includes free food, shelter, and health care. But then again inmates actually pay my salary. It's funny though because I pay taxes to support prisons and prisons turn around and pay my salary.

Please take no offense at anything I write although I do have high standards about nursing care no matter who it is.

Gary

fiestynurse · Feb 16, 2004

GaryLPN - Hillsborough County has a brand new jail facility that is run by PHS. The medical department is state-of-the-art. The DON is a great guy, who you would love working for. You said that you already work for PHS, so it would be an easy site transfer. I highly recommend this facility.

aprisonrn2 · Feb 28, 2006

As a prison RN for over 5 years, I've never given a patient a back rub or massage of any type!! Florida DOC is a good place to work, whether you're an RN or LPN. The biggest thing to remember about working with inmates is that they will try to get anything from you that they can. ANYTHING that is available in the medical department can become their equivilant of cash, since the prisons are a cashless society.

At times, working with inmates will be very rewarding and at other times, it can be very frustrating. (Doesn't that sound like most other nursing environments?!?) Trying to give good nursing care and be a patient advocate and stay within the limits imposed on you because of the system can be very challenging at times. One of the biggest threats to that is nurses that become "institutionalized" themselves. I mean, after all, they are just inmates, right?

I don't know about the county camps down around Tampa, but up in north FL, between Gainesville and Jacksonville, I can think of at least 9 state facilities plus the county camps, within an hours drive of Gainesville....and that is just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Come on down to Florida, we need more good nurses here!!