Just started Corrections as LPN

[hjoanne]

Hi everyone!

I just need some advise on what to do, please! I am a new LPN. I was just hired at a correctional facility in my state, through a staffing agency. My husband is a CO at a neighboring prison. The problem is he forbid me from working at ANY prison at all! He is very adamant about it! There are 6 different prisons within a 25 mile radius from us. It is only my 2nd week, but I very much enjoy correctional nursing! We have a very unique last name and I fear he will find out through someone else. Just an observation, but COs are very chatty!

He has been a CO for 18 years and we have been together for 8 years. He has never told me about his day at work. He seems to do a very good job at keeping work at work. When we discussed me working at a prison he just told me no, because it isn't safe. His prison is the "intake prison" meaning after sentencing the inmate will spend 6 months there for evaluation. Then they ship the inmate out to whichever prison they will serve their time at. Both his and my prison are max. He sees every inmate sentenced in our state. So, I can understand that he will most likely know most of the inmates where I work. Also, I should mention that I am pregnant.

I have been in healthcare (Long-term care) for 7 years as a CNA and 1 year as a Nurse Extern. What he doesn't understand is in those past 8 years I've been scratched, bitten, kicked, spit on and everything else. Just before starting this prison job I was punched in my pregnant belly at a nursing home! I'm currently 6 months pregnant. Although i will never let my guard down, I actually feel safer working at a prison, if that makes sense.

Anyway, I just need advise on how to tell him as I HATE lying about it!! Any advise would be very much appreciated.

Thank you for reading this!

[Nurse Beth, MSN]

Hi everyone!

I just need some advise on what to do, please! I am a new LPN. I was just hired at a correctional facility in my state, through a staffing agency. My husband is a CO at a neighboring prison. The problem is he forbid me from working at ANY prison at all! He is very adamant about it! There are 6 different prisons within a 25 mile radius from us. It is only my 2nd week, but I very much enjoy correctional nursing! We have a very unique last name and I fear he will find out through someone else. Just an observation, but COs are very chatty!

Anyway, I just need advise on how to tell him as I HATE lying about it!! Any advise would be very much appreciated.

Thank you for reading this!

I'm thinking it would take a lot of subterfuge to apply, get hired, work at and hide my place of employment from my husband.

The main problem is not revealing to your husband where you work, it's a relationship that breeds secrets, and where one person forbids the other to do something without discussion.

I hope this is a catalyst for better communication, and congratulations on getting your LPN.

[Orca, ADN, ASN, RN]

I walk the yard every day at the largest prison facility in my state. It is also an intake facility. I feel safer on the yard here than I did walking the back halls of the hospitals where I used to work late at night. There is a potential for violence in this facility or any other. There is also a potential for violence when you stop for gas or go to the grocery store. In the hospital where my sister works, two people were shot to death in their ER by an angry visitor. IMO your husband's concerns are overblown. I have been at this for over 16 years now, and I have no intention of going back to hospitals, long term care or anything else.

[smllattnspn21, MSN, RN]

I feel much safer working in a correctional setting than I do in a Hospital. If your patients start yelling at you in a hospital setting you have to just take it. In the correctional setting you can shut the door in their face and walk away. You are never alone and always have a deputy with you. Your husbands concerns are not unlike many other spouses concerns. Besides that, guys have the natural instinct to protect those they love. This is part of the reason my dating life is pretty much nonexistent. They find out I work in corrections and run for the hills. However, him forbidding you to work in this type of setting is a little over kill. I for one would never allow my spouse to tell me where or how I will work. That's called control. Next he will be telling you what you can and cant wear. Eventually he will find out, if he hasn't already. Inmates talk and news spreads fast. Wouldn't you prefer the news to come from you rather than from an inmate.

[Orca, ADN, ASN, RN]

If your patients start yelling at you in a hospital setting you have to just take it. In the correctional setting you can shut the door in their face and walk away.

This is one of the most underrated aspects of correctional nursing. You don't have to placate inmates, because we're not afraid of losing their business. When I worked hospitals, I was asked to apologize to a family when we had done nothing wrong.