Health Services Administrator

Specialties Correctional

Published

Today I interviewed for a Health Services Administrator position at a local jail. The most interesting part of my interview was with security. I was made aware of all the challenges that the city jail has been acquiring since being privatized under a contract which is to provide health care services to the inmates. I know that no one is knocking down the door to become a corrections nurse, but of course, staffing was a big issue. The other huge issue was failure of several audits and my guess is that poor screening and follow ups of various disease processes have been accomplished through out several months,

While I welcome the knowledge of all the challenges, if I were to take this position, how do I conquer the problem areas to make the client happy? I honestly dont know where to begin.

Specializes in Hospice, corrections, psychiatry, rehab, LTC.

You aren't going to know the answer to that until you know what the specific issues are. Most such places have staffing issues. We have hired a lot of nurses who are leaving contracted companies in county and city jails. One thing that is cited repeatedly is poor treatment of employees by management. If that is an issue where you are going, that is something you can directly affect.

If I were going into a position like that, the first thing I would do is observe the operation and see what/who is working and what/who is not. I would also meet with employees individually and see what they like and what they don't like about their jobs. Fix the things you can and mitigate the others as much as possible. If the problem is pay and benefits, you won't be able to fix that. Procedural obstacles, you can usually correct. Solicit ideas from the employees, who know what their jobs entail, and implement the good ones.

Make changes gradually. Change is stressful, even if it is positive, and too much of it at once can overwhelm employees. Let them gradually adjust as you put things in.

Specializes in Correctional.

I was one such nurse at a county jail and back up what Orca mentioned above. The way management treats you in private contractor companies is I believe the key reason why their is such high turnover of staff. Goodluck to you. I'm sure you will do well, seeing that you are already trying to figure out how you will combat the problem.

I would like to thank you all for the input. Sorry I took so long to respond, but you must know how work life is!!!!:yes:!!!!! Yeah, instantly, I started to think of how to combat their issues. I have worked in Department of Corrections since 2008. I started out as a Charge Nurse, worked as a Nurse Manager, then a Director of Nurisng. So, going to an interview for a county jail, instantly I could see that they liked structure greatly. Coming from a Level 4 State Prison, most of the problems that the security (Contract Monitor) complained of during my interview included poor judgement/assessment as to when to send an inmate off site for an emergency run. Im thinking in my mind "Duh" but not everyone gets it. Even if I knew what how to make sound judgements on such instances, it would be up to my staff who are there after hours to know what to do. If I am selected for that job, I see I will have some coaching to do as well. But, I must say, the input received from you all has been great. A very great starter for me. Hope to keep in touch. ;)

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