Do hosptials consider correctional nursing, nursing experience?

[brian2412]

I graduated with an AS degree in RN 7 months ago and the hospitals haven't been hiring new grads. Nursing homes and correctional facilities certainly are though. Correctional RN's make $8-10 more an hour than the acute rehab in a LT facility I'm at. My question is would a hospital see correctional on my resume and say that doesn't count as much as acute LT care. I need the $$, but I'd take the hit and stay at the nursing home if I knew it would pay off in the long run. PLEASE HELP!

[aura_of_laura]

It's definitely experience, especially if you ever want to work in psych. LTC will prepare you more for geriatric med-surg nursing, but corrections will give you a lot of basic med-surg experience, and a ton on teaching, community health problems (like drug use, violence, and communicable diseases), and mental health.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

I do not see that nursing home care would prepare you for acute care any more than correctional. If you can make a case that the elements for acute care were in your experience that should suffice (assessment, interventions, critical thinking, communication with other disciplines,etc)

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

In Corrections, you can care for juveniles, adults, men, and women.

Pregnancy, post-partum, drug withdrawal/usage, trauma, illnesses of every system - cardiovascular, GI, Neuro, and so on, lots of mental illness among criminals (rape, arson, homicide, violent crimes, and so on).

Some prisons (federal, maybe some state) actually have operating rooms, recovery rooms, post-op wards, plus lots of ambulatory care.

You can get a broad range of experience in correctional facilities. You will also possibly be asked to shoulder a rifle in the event of a riot, especially if you're a guy.

Check it out.