Do you recommend? I would truly love your input!

deyo321 · Feb 1, 2009

I would not.

If you are working in a large prison with a staff willing to mentor you it might work. But where I am I AM medical when I am here. I have to assess and know when to call the doc or when to ship em back to work. You would need a pretty wide knowledge base and top notch assessment skills. You just can't get it all in school. I literally have to cover everything from scabies to CP, and emergency medicine. You really need to be confident, and coming out of school there is so much to learn. But I'm sure people have done it. It just depends on how willing they are to train you.

Snoglobe · Feb 2, 2009

I have to say that I echo Deyo321. If you work in a county jail the nurses are the medical team. We only have a doctor on site about 5 hours per week. You are expected to handle such a wide variety of situations and usually with less than perfect resources. Your assessments skills must be top notch and wide to handle the job. I have dealt with everything from suicide attempts to placenta praevia- it can be similar to working in an ER with no docs. I live in Oregon and the state nursing board won't let LVN's work in a jail setting because of the level of assessment needed. I love corrections, but it can be overwhelming for those who are just starting nursing. You should be secure in your abiltities. Just the intake portion of the jail can be a challenge because they bring you people straight from the street and you must assess the status of person for suitability to be housed- it can be more than tricky. You would need to make sure you were adequately trained and many jails are "nurse needy" and might hire you even if you were not right for the job. I wish you luck with your decision.

RN Randy · Feb 7, 2009

I'd have to agree on that one as well. Learn to be a nurse first, then seek out a specialty. Clinic, nursing home, long-term care, and even ER or ICU... that kind of thing will give you a good idea of what to expect. You can go from band-aid tech to code team leader within an hour.