Inmate privacy in corrections

[Findingmynitch]

Once upon a time, I was about to do wound care on a patient's groin. It required him being disrobed from the waist down. I had completed his wound care frequently over an extended period of time. Each time I did his wound care, I was alone in my office with him with a privacy screen up and an officer within ear shot.

On this occasion, I politely told the officer who was standing in my office with the inmate,"Unless you HAVE to be in here, I am going to ask you to stand outside the room because I need him to disrobe from the waist down." The officer stepped out of the room, and I put up the privacy screen. However, later that shift while I was going to the pods to do my fingerstick run, I was HIT by one of the doors; hard enough to hurt but not hard enough to bruise (still assault and battery). My question for you is, was I out of line by protecting this inmates privacy? The officer was still standing just outside of the privacy screen. It was not unusual for custody to not open the doors, leave me standing in Sally ports or outside the facility for extended periods of time whenever I had unintentionally offended them.

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

I don't know if you are a male are female but if you are a female nurse doing wound care on a male inmate from my experience the inmate would not be offended & would have liked to be alone, half naked with a female nurse. I never had that happen to me.

[Findingmynitch]

At this facility, there is no protocol for having a chaperon during an exam unless the inmate is deemed to be dangerous. I am a female nurse. These exams/care occur all of the time, particularly with wound care.

In this case, I was about to get started on wound care, and the inmate asked if the officer had to be in the room. This inmate had always been exceptionally polite and appropriate. I made the request to the officer because I didn't see why I should be treating him differently on that day compared to any other day when his status within the facility had not changed.

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

When I did wound care on an inmate some times the CO was in the room other times they weren't. I never did wound care in the genital area but the inmates were always kind to me. If the inmate was uncomfortable with the CO being in the room I would ask them to step out & that sounds like what happens there. It doesn't sound like you did anything wrong. You know how corrections is. One minute the inmates love you, the next they hate you because of reason X/Y/Z.

[OfficerRNBSN]

I really don't feel like privacy is an issue inside the fence. They live together, shower openly, and the jailers frequently see them naked. Having said that, I have a female officer come around if I'm alone with a female inmate, or I do something with them where it'll be recorded on video.