1,000 inmates 4 night nurses.......

Specialties Correctional

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I applied for a job and thats what the ratio is. Does that sound right? Sounds like an awful lot to me.

Specializes in Correctional Nursing, Geriatrics.
do u get paid the same amout working for a jail/prison or is the pay low. It should be more if u have 2,300 patients to 3 nurses. (seems like a lot of work) Plus, I think I would be scared of the inmates.

The pay for correctional nurses in Central WV is comparable to the pay elsewhere. It is actually better pay than most area hospitals. Not quite as good as some nursing homes, but I think nursing homes have to raise their $ scale to lure in nurses. I, for one, cannot handle that scene...and my hat goes off to those who can...they deserve the extra $. So, correctional nursing is riskier work, at times, but I have never been scared. We always have an officer present and this is more than a lot of nurses have in hospitals and nursing homes. I have been called worse names and been spit, slapped at by more elderly patients in nursing homes! Never been assaulted physically at the jail I work at. All in all, I feel it is one of the better jobs in nursing. :)

The pay for correctional nurses in Central WV is comparable to the pay elsewhere.{{SNIP}}} Never been assaulted physically at the jail I work at. All in all, I feel it is one of the better jobs in nursing. :)

I agree!

So Nurse Warrior, what IS the pay in WV??? and do you work for a privatized co??? ie CMS or PHS??? and how is the air quality there???

Killing me here in Louisville, another year & I will most likely need an inhaler......

Love the job with the new company but they gave someone Dayshift Supervisor that is nothing but nasty to most of us so maybe its time to move on.....

West is the way I am hoping for tho...LOL!!

--leslie

Specializes in Correctional Nursing, Geriatrics.

Leslie...

I work for a private company, PrimeCare Medical. They have the Regional Jail contract here in WV. CMS has the DOC contract. The base pay for fulltime LPNs is $12.00/hr with shift differential. PRN makes $14.00/hr--no benefits--and a couple of the jails pay a little more on the hr....a dollar or two...I don't know why. RNs make around $18.00/hr base pay I think. That is pretty comparable to LPN/RN wages around here, like I said, unless you go to a bigger hospital in Charleston or Parkersburg maybe. Again, some of the nursing homes pay better, too. PrimeCare does give yearly raises and they are just implementing bonuses for things like not calling off, etc. All things considered, they are not a bad company to work for. Probably the best outfit I have worked for. I actually worked for CMS for a couple months at one of the DOC prisons...pay was not as good...$2/hr less. Benefits were ok.

The air in WV...hmmm...you are asking a transplanted Buckeye! When I first moved here from Ohio, 10 years ago, my sinuses gave me fits, never knew what an allergy was until then! But I have adjusted. It takes about 1-2 years to get adjusted to the climate and altitude I guess. But, if you are in KY, it probably is not much different there. I think I would like to live in TX or AK...well, I hope this helps! :)

I applied for a job and thats what the ratio is. Does that sound right? Sounds like an awful lot to me.

Prior to changing our hours, the Medical Dept was open 24 hours. Our night shift nurses worked 7p-7a and we had 2 nurses for 4400 offenders. We now have more offenders. I'm glad Medical is not there 24 hours any longer, it's even difficult during the day with 6 and 7 nurses on staff to cover what needs to be completed.

We have 1500 inmates with approx. 14-15 nurses on the night shift.

4 nurses for 1000 inmates sounds like a bad ratio to me...but I guess it must be the facility that I work in.

And where is this? We only have 11 nurses total for our entire 16 hour day clinics, 12 hrs of weekends. We also cover 3 separate clinics with these nurses and have 4800 offenders.

I applied for a job and thats what the ratio is. Does that sound right? Sounds like an awful lot to me.

In my facility we have 2500 inmates. At night we are staffed by two RNs and one LPN. We get along fine with our work load and have been able to handle any emergencies well. Four nurses seems a bit over staffed to me. How lucky you would be!

try 3 to 4 to 2000 inmates on a typical night, 1000 imates to four nurses sound like heaven

As a nurse AND one time inmate..I firmly disagree. As inmates, we would fill out sick call requests and then wait 2 weeks for a reply and 2 more weeks for an appt. Many inmates cannot afford the medication when it comes to to choosing between tylenol and hygiene....the choice was shampoo. Also, when ordering on a weds. we would have to wait another week to recieve the commisary.

But as to the original question.....PLEASE show kindness and attentiveness to the inmates....they are real people with real health issuses.:)

Specializes in Psych, Informatics, Biostatistics.

Sorry, just noted I had already responded to the thread. Duh moment.

If I were taking that on, I would want to know a couple of thing.

#1) Do you have any CNA's or other unlicensed staff to assist?

#2) Do you have any med passes or med sick calls (other than emergencies) during that shift? I worked 12hr NOCS at a prison, and the biggest med pass was HS d/t all the psychotropics that are passed in that facility. Our ratio on NOC's was about 230:1, so that's about right. We also had to do all the intakes and labs on NOC's and had to coordinate that with security, and that's probably the hardest part of correctional nursing. Remember, security comes before EVERYTHING else.

Specializes in ER, PACU, CORRECTIONAL HEALTH, FLIGHT.

i was head nurse of a male prison offender population 1200. medium/maximum security. i was the only RN, with one LVN who spent the whole shift doing evening pill call and then setting up for morning pill call....so she was not able to help me much for the post altercation physicals, pre-confinement physicals...and during a big "riot", there could be dozens of inmates being escorted to medical.

still, the easiest nursing job i have had in 16 years, and going back to corrections from ER in the next few months!

Specializes in med- surg home health corrections.
There is an infirmary but I'm not sure how many beds. I'm going to go for an interview and ask more questions.

Thanks for your replies. I need to get out of hospital nursing :)

i work 12 hrs 6p-6a we have over 500 inmates and im all alone!!!but most are farmed out to regional jails and they come back and forth all the times its hard to keep the meds and chronic care up on these inmates:nurse::saint:

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