Interested in corrections, but concerned about stigma for future

[RunninNurse]

I'm a current nursing student set to graduate this coming June. Like many other topics I've read here, my professors also have pressed that it's imperative I get experience on a med-surg floor before doing anything else. Problem is, I can't see myself being a floor nurse at a hospital. It's just really not something I find appealing.

I've been thinking about corrections nursing, and while I've read a lot of the discussions on the forum about what's it like, I'm more concerned about the stigma. For instance, if I take a corrections job as a new grad, and then somewhere down the road decide to jump to a hospital, will hospitals even be interested in me? Is it possible to jump after being in corrections? I know that corrections nurses can be labeled, and I was concerned that if I found out corrections wasn't for me, I'd be stuck. Any experiences in this area would be helpful.

[DavidDudley]

Depends on the hospital. With my hospital, I appealed to my past correctional experience since I had plenty of urgent/emergent experience there and it really seemed to help during the interview. But for other hospitals it might not have flown too well during the interview. The correctional experience has recently allowed me to enter med-surg via registry. So while there is the issue of there being a stigma, it can still be a valuable stepping stone.

[Revvy1337]

I think many hospitals will jump at the chance to employ someone who has seen emergency type situations: Broken arms from fights in the cell, dog bites, stab wounds, bullet holes, wound care in general, and can't forget OVERDOSE situations and DETOX. This is the stuff that hospitals might actually consider you a better candidate. You will learn valuable type management skills because the crap hits the fan quick and you better be organized!

[RunninNurse]

Thank you both for the feedback! I appreciate it!