New Grad Considering Corrections Nursing

Specialties Correctional

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I will be graduating in 6 months with my BSN and have been approached by a maximum security state prison. The pay, benefits, and other incentives make this offer very lucrative but I am concerned with the idea of going into this type of setting before ever really getting my feet wet. Safety isn't a huge concern because I am a 6'2" 260lb guy who can hold his own. Any advice on entering the correctional nursing field would be greatly appreciated.

I have worked in a Federal prison for 6+ years now, but I worked on a med surg unit for 2.5 years in the community first. My opinion is nurses need at least 1 year in the community before considering correctional nursing. Whether you are an officer, nurse, secretary, counselor, etc., everyone's first priority when working in a prison is safety and security of the institution. It's just too much to multi-task the corrections and the healthcare for a new grad.

I worked at a state juvenile prison about a year after graduating (I did med-surg). Corrections is excellent experience to gain. It was mostly primary care, we had a fulltime MD and part time NP, we held clinic every day, sick call and gave meds in the chow hall. Any case that we couldn't take care of in the health unit, we sent to the ER. Any youth that needed a specialist, we sent them out to one of our contracted providers. Check into youth corrections. I did this many years ago, but I still think about it quite often. Amazing experience. To work in this type of facility, you wouldn't have to have med-surg, but this is always good to have.

I started in corrections out of school and loved it. Just try to go into the water slowly. Start in sick call, pill line, clinic before letting them give you responsibility for emergency response

Hey there,

I worked my way through nursing school while working in county jails in a pretty large urban area. I started as an EMT, then LPN, and finally RN. I have some suggestions/thinking points.

1) There's a reason (actually several) that these jobs are lucrative. It takes a certain type of person, and a lot of experience, to tell the difference between a legitimate medical complaint and a malingerer looking to gain something. Not to mention the day to day abuses of attempting to care for people who sometimes don't care for themselves, and especially hate being held where they are.

2) Your medical part of the job will never be first. It's always the security of the facility and safety of the staff first. That can be a difficult adjustment.

3) While this can happen in any nursing job, don't discount your risk of verbal or even physical confrontations. You stated your height and weight, but that can potentially make you a target.

4) As a new grad, even if you've had medical experience before, there is a LOT we don't know. I had no idea until I was responsible for knowing it. In one of the facilities I worked in, I was the only nurse as an LPN, with only a Medical Assistant or EMT as my help. The physician was not on site. It can be scary.

5) Many times, you can send a patient to a local hospital for further treatment (though some federal facilities have their own hospital wings). Be prepared to have good reasons and justification when you call the physician for orders to send out. Depending on the patient, they may be a flight risk or require multiple law enforcement personnel to escort them to the hospital and stay there for the duration of the hospitalization. Where I worked, the county was responsible for paying the hospital bills. All this meant we had to be able to justify not only why we woke up the physician, but why we pushed to send the patient out.

My point in all this is it might be good to consider some med-surg or other acute care experience prior to working in corrections. I really enjoyed my time there, and I miss it. I hope this gives you some guidance. Good luck! :)

I strongly second the above post--brand new nurses just don't belong in corrections: you don't have the assessment skills or the general experience that gives you confidence. Your actions (or lack thereof) will be challenged often in prison by personality-disordered offenders who want attention, happy drugs, a vacation in your infirmary, or a field trip to the hospital; you need the confidence to stand up to them in a believable way, and if you don't have confidence the offenders will pick up on that instantly (and try to take advantage of it).

It can be done, of course--some new nurses will be OK in corrections, but I strongly believe that most will flounder. Try a year in the local hospital--ER is a great springboard for a corrections career. Good luck, whatever you do!

Regarding patient safety, I feel WAY more safe in jail than I do in the hospital. In jail, the bad guys have been easily identified. I'm never more than arms length away from a trained officer who's sole purpose is my protection. Not to mention, many of the detention staff would love nothing more than for an inmate to start something so they can pound on him for a bit LOL.

I've spent the last 3+ years as an LPN in corrections. I just finished RN school, and I want to go to the ER (similar to corrections in many aspects) but I'd definitely like to come back to corrections, and actually will stay at my current facility PRN.

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