Pay for Correctional nurses?

Specialties Correctional

Published

I'm just curious as to the salary for correctional nurses? I"m a new grad, and have an interview scheduled with a correctional facility in gatesville texas. they do 12 hr shifts from 445am-515pm (whewwwwwwwww that's an early morning and a really long day! lol) i understand some of the duties, but i didnt want to ask about pay so i wondered what range of pay you all make? if you are willing to say...thanks for the input!

Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.
Quote
At a prison locally - $10,400 a month.

steph

Where on earth do you make that?

Specializes in ED, MS, CC.

Congratulations on graduating from nursing school! And welcome to the nursing world! Corrections does pay considerably more than area hospitals, however in my own opinion as a nurse in a Corrections facility, I would highly recommend that you get some experience in a hospital first. I say this because you need good assessment skills, and some of the presentations you get from inmates can be very misleading.

For instance in the prison setting you will be obligated to doing "sick call" where inmates come in for a complaint, say dizziness, and you decide whether or not the inmate needs referral to the physican.

In the facility where I work we have a lot of new grads working and unfortuately for the inmates, their illnesses were regarded as non-emergent and didn't get physican referrals.

One inmate came in for dizziness and it was disregarded by 2 nurses before I saw her. She had a whopping heart murmur and after seeing the doctor was transferred out for cardiac issues.

Another inmate came in 6 times over 4 months, for a cough with frothy sputum and black specks. She has recently been diagnosed with lung cancer.

Its been my experience (no offense to you) that Correctional facilities are Desperate to get their needs filled, at the price of inmate health. I was oriented for 1 week, and left on my own to figure things out, and that can be scary! I was promised that I would go to the evening shift for 6 months before I finally gave notice and am working prn. It wasn't so much that the inmates are the problem but the nurses there have been there forever, and dislike all newcomers. I had a lpn threaten to have me fired because an inmate with a glucose of 5o got an ice cream sandwich from the captain, in an effort to keep him from having to send 2 CO's with her to the hospital for further treatment (if she would eat we didn't have to send her) Nevermind that I wasn't the one who gave her the ice cream, or permission for her to eat it! I was bullied, threatened and pretty much treated like I was an idiot. I have 4 years of emergency nursing and it was new mindset from where I came from.

We're taught in the ER that every complaint is valid until tests prove otherwise. At the prison, it was the exact opposite, they are treated like every complaint is a lie! I had some unpleasant times, and left many days in tears vowing to never go back.

For your sake I hope you have a better experience, a strong will, and faith in yourself. Good Luck to you!

I'm depressed....

as a LPN in Indiana, I make $16.25/hr. After my boards, I had to fight to get put up to $22.72... they were going to pay me $21/hr.

Maybe I should get my Ohio license too?

Specializes in Correctional and MRDD.

Reading most of the above replies makes me want to quit my job RIGHT NOW. I work in the county jail in the town I live. RN start at 21 dollars and hour and LPN 16 dollars an hour. We are soooooo underpay. I like the job though, is a very different type of nursing.

Specializes in Correctional and MRDD.
dragonflyaltoids said:
Congratulations on graduating from nursing school! And welcome to the nursing world! Corrections does pay considerably more than area hospitals, however in my own opinion as a nurse in a Corrections facility, I would highly recommend that you get some experience in a hospital first. I say this because you need good assessment skills, and some of the presentations you get from inmates can be very misleading.

For instance in the prison setting you will be obligated to doing "sick call" where inmates come in for a complaint, say dizziness, and you decide whether or not the inmate needs referral to the physican.

In the facility where I work we have a lot of new grads working and unfortuately for the inmates, their illnesses were regarded as non-emergent and didn't get physican referrals.

One inmate came in for dizziness and it was disregarded by 2 nurses before I saw her. She had a whopping heart murmur and after seeing the doctor was transferred out for cardiac issues.

Another inmate came in 6 times over 4 months, for a cough with frothy sputum and black specks. She has recently been diagnosed with lung cancer.

Its been my experience (no offense to you) that Correctional facilities are Desperate to get their needs filled, at the price of inmate health. I was oriented for 1 week, and left on my own to figure things out, and that can be scary! I was promised that I would go to the evening shift for 6 months before I finally gave notice and am working prn. It wasn't so much that the inmates are the problem but the nurses there have been there forever, and dislike all newcomers. I had a lpn threaten to have me fired because an inmate with a glucose of 5o got an ice cream sandwich from the captain, in an effort to keep him from having to send 2 CO's with her to the hospital for further treatment (if she would eat we didn't have to send her) Nevermind that I wasn't the one who gave her the ice cream, or permission for her to eat it! I was bullied, threatened and pretty much treated like I was an idiot. I have 4 years of emergency nursing and it was new mindset from where I came from.

We're taught in the ER that every complaint is valid until tests prove otherwise. At the prison, it was the exact opposite, they are treated like every complaint is a lie! I had some unpleasant times, and left many days in tears vowing to never go back.

For your sake I hope you have a better experience, a strong will, and faith in yourself. Good Luck to you!

WOW! do we work in the same place? It sounds as if you were describing my place of work. The hardest part of my job in not dealing with the inmate, the hardest part of my job is dealing with the staff. Most of the nurses are very unprofessional and the "F" words flies in medical like it is not a big thing. When an inmate has a complain, most often than not some of the nurses don't believe him/her saying that they are making stuff up. In my case, I treat every complain as if it legit until proven otherwise. I have decided to be different from most of the staff, I want to be caring and emphatetic, even if it comes to saving the live of a child molester or a serial killer.

ibnathan said:
I worked in one of the local hospitals in Bakersfield CA. It's funny in Kern County (Bakersfield is largest city in Kern County) we have the greatest shortage of nurses in Cali. ,but we are the lowest paid in the state. Our cost of living isn't as high as other parts of Cali but it is getting close to southern cal. One of the reasons why I left ICU was because I felt that out licenses were on the line to much. I loved it but the hospital would not back its nurses. So my friend who started in the ICU with me went to the CDCR he loved it and told me to come out and take a look at it. Since the CDCR raised there wages condsiderably there is a 3000+ waiting list.

3000 + waiting list???? Where in CDCR are you? I work at CTF in Soledad and there is never enough nurses to cover shifts, LVN's or RN's. Every day since I started on 11/30, at least 1 LVN is ordered over and they seem to be super short on RN's too since the schedule is more yellow blanks then filled in names.

Specializes in Occupational health, Corrections, PACU.

WOW! do we work in the same place? It sounds as if you were describing my place of work. The hardest part of my job in not dealing with the inmate, the hardest part of my job is dealing with the staff. Most of the nurses are very unprofessional and the "F" words flies in medical like it is not a big thing. When an inmate has a complain, most often than not some of the nurses don't believe him/her saying that they are making stuff up. In my case, I treat every complain as if it legit until proven otherwise. I have decided to be different from most of the staff, I want to be caring and emphatetic, even if it comes to saving the live of a child molester or a serial killer.

Good for you! Ditto on this. I have seen some of the most heinous, non-compassionate, unprofessional nursing since working in corrections. I like the work and I am always able to leave thinking that I really made a difference because I am a good nurse. I'm careful not to buy into being manipulated, but I treat the problem. I see so many nurses simply "dismiss" symptoms, then I have to come along and deal with something when it gets really serious. The nursing skills I see from many of the LVN's are pathetic, and I am talking about very basic skills like giving a subq. injection. The RN's usually have good skills, but dismiss way too much as "oh he is 'just gaming us' ", when the inmate has a legitimate problem. I just work to do the right thing for another human being and protect my license. Professionalism and good assessment skills can only help, if things ever turn into legal matters.

Specializes in Occupational health, Corrections, PACU.
katkonk said:
WOW! do we work in the same place? It sounds as if you were describing my place of work. The hardest part of my job in not dealing with the inmate, the hardest part of my job is dealing with the staff. Most of the nurses are very unprofessional and the "F" words flies in medical like it is not a big thing. When an inmate has a complain, most often than not some of the nurses don't believe him/her saying that they are making stuff up. In my case, I treat every complain as if it legit until proven otherwise. I have decided to be different from most of the staff, I want to be caring and emphatetic, even if it comes to saving the live of a child molester or a serial killer.

Good for you! Ditto on this. I have seen some of the most heinous, non-compassionate, unprofessional nursing since working in corrections. I like the work and I am always able to leave thinking that I really made a difference because I am a good nurse. I'm careful not to buy into being manipulated, but I treat the problem. I see so many nurses simply "dismiss" symptoms, then I have to come along and deal with something when it gets really serious. The nursing skills I see from many of the LVN's are pathetic, and I am talking about very basic skills like giving a subq. injection. The RN's usually have good skills, but dismiss way too much as "oh he is 'just gaming us' ", when the inmate has a legitimate problem. I just work to do the right thing for another human being and protect my license. Professionalism and good assessment skills can only help, if things ever turn into legal matters.

But, I should add, that I have also seen some VERY good nurses, and have worked with other RN's that also want to do the right thing. I have met some really good LVN's along the way, too. They are often asked to do much with the training that they have. And many work their a**es off and do a fine job. I've seen many new grads that were doing everything they could to learn everything that someone would teach them. Didn't mean it to sound like it was all one way or the other.

Work for Wi corrections. Have more than 10 years senioity and make 42/hr working nights. 25 vac days, 4.5 pers. holidays, 9holidays, and now 8 furlough days. Time one half on holidays and when over 40 hours week. We had one RN who was a weekender plus picked up a bunch of hours during week and made 225,000 in 08

Specializes in Occupational health, Corrections, PACU.

Is that Wi..as in Wisconsin...I assume?

I wanna go there.

I make 30/hr at a county jail. I would not suggest it as necessarily the place to start out without experience. In county jail you are getting folks in just off the streets..."hardened" criminals as well. Many of these folks just in off the streets, or on the outs don't care for themselves..not always in "stable condition"...your assessment skills in this setting need to be top notch. Not saying it cant be done as a new grad...its just my 2 cents worth. good luck

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