Correctional nursing considered experience??

[heavenlystar87]

Hi,

I have to ask the allnurses community on this....

Is Correctional nursing considered medical surgical experience??? or acute care??? What kind of experience does it equate to??

I talked to one nursing recruiter that said that they don't accept correctional nursing as experience. I mean...we provide long term and acute care.

Also,...it's just, if someone asks me do I have med/surg experience....I say, no, I have correctional experience?? Bc I would say yes before...but...I just talked to a agency and she asked me again if I had any med/surg experience...

Please let me know...bc, I am frustrated.

[dthfytr, ADN, LPN, RN, EMT-B, EMT-I]

What did you do? Was there a clinic in which you helped PA's, NP's, or MD's? I assume you did a medline. There's a lot of psych involved in correctional medicine (from personal experience). Make a list of your duties for us, it would be much easier to answer your question. It's a shame the recruiters are so narrow minded. Correctional medicine is no cake walk.

[mtsteelhorse]

I work in corrections also. It is not med/surg but it is an area of public health that includes acute and chronic care, including mental health care. Does your facility have an infirmary? Do you draw blood? Many people do not understand the area of correctional nursing. We manage healthcare ranging from lice to CHF, DM, HIV, etc. Emphasize the types of patients you provide care for. Also corrections requires a lot of autonomy in many cases. What are you hoping to do? Have you had other nursing experience? Happy to chat with you about this.

[lizfus]

Thanks for the information. I struggle with this to since my background has mainly been with correctional nursing, occ health, and telephonic nurisng it seems I haven't been able to get into a hospital because they don't look at my experience as acute care or something. i am not sure but sure would like to get in to a hospital if someone would just give me a chance/break!!