From Officer To Nurse

JailRN · Jul 29, 2007

I know there's folks in all areas who don't do the right thing and leave bad impressions on others. We need nurses, so, you go girl!!!:yelclap: If you've already experienced the correctional setting, you already know the smell of the "sobering cell" :cheers: (formerly known as the 'drunk tank':barf01:) first thing on a Sunday morning.

I love it here (and I don't have to give bed baths or do enemas til clear:lol2:) I was sent here by the registry on 2-99, was hired shortly thereafter, and haven't looked back. I love it here.

It doesn't matter how old you are, there's people graduating from nursing school at all ages, (my own husband was 55) and we need nurses, wait, I think I already said that, yes, I did, but I can't say it often enough. The jail may not be perfect, but it's perfect for me.

Why did you leave as an officer?? Hopefully, not because of a bad nurse. Are you in school yet? Please let us know. And good luck!! It's the toughest job that I ever loved.

shell911rn · Jul 31, 2007

Initially, what made me want to be a correctional nurse was a change of scenery. I didn't want to work in a hospital anymore, but I needed a job that paid me as well as the private hospital, and with good benefits. That's what brought me to the state. Correctional nurses, unfortunately, often have the stigma of not being the best or brightest nurses. This is not fair because we are only as good as our environment, resources, and training allow us to be and there are rotten apples in every line of work (including the ranks of correctional officers). Most nurses I work with are professional towards the inmates. I want the inmate to feel comfortable coming to me about his problem, not dreading dealing with me and thus, prolonging his agony or his issue until it becomes an emergency. That's not to say that I haven't ever argued with an inmate or said something I regreted saying. I'm only human and I try to keep those moments to a bare minimum and I'm not afraid to apologize when an apology is due. But, the system will also harden you. Lack of training, lack of resources, lack of staffing, lack of support from management and fellow coworkers, dealing with criminals who will try to get one over on you, who are noncompliant with therapy or taking meds for secondary gain, who may potentially harm you or those you work with, who have committed unthinkable/unspeakable crimes (but you have to put that behind you and still provide them with medical care) and are receiving better medical care than you or their victims are probably receiving on the streets--it's a hard pill to swallow some days.

Coworkers joke about how I was such a nice person when I started with the department. It's not that I'm a mean person now, but the experiences I've had have changed me, some for the better, some for worse, and I'm not nearly so naive about what goes on in a prison or of the criminal mind as I was when I started a year and a half ago. The inmate who smiles and talks nice to you one moment can be the same inmate who assaults an officer, another inmate, or may be even you in the next moment. It changes your beliefs about humanity and grounds you in reality.

We also have to try to be therapeutic in a punitive environment and that's a tough role in a correctional facility, especially if custody is not supportive of, but resents your role, and especially when you not only have to balance advocating for your patient (the inmate), but advocating for the safety of yourself, your coworkers, and the institution. The money, the benefits, and the variety of experience make it worth it for now--but I'm forever a changed person, just as I'm sure you were after your first year as an officer.

You may have seen a nurse on a bad day (short staffed, overwhelming responsibilities, too many inmates with too many medical problems and no support from management and no supplies to manage the problems in front of him/her) with a mouthy inmate who feels he is owed the world. Or you may have seen a few of the rotten apples in the bunch who don't feel an inmate has a thing coming to him. I, for one, believe that the inmate's punishment is being in prison, not substandard medical care. It is my job to make sure they are healthy enough to make it through their sentence and, hopefully, return to their communities to be productive citizens. Now, both you and I know that that is a pipe dream in many cases to think that most inmates will eventually become productive citizens. But, hopefully, we touch a few lives, whether as a correctional officer or correctional nurse, and that by being a role model, a few will be become productive citizens because of how we treated them. I hope this helps you and other correctional officers understand things from a correctional nurses' perspective.

JailRN · Aug 9, 2007

WOW!! Beautifully said...:yelclap: Thanks

henryswife · Aug 9, 2007

wow that was wonderful! if not inspiring! oh trust me i know its hard to be in a prison setting and probably twice hard to administer health care under such gloomly settings.im definitely excited about being an nurse,i actually start this year.i figure i start off as an adn and work my way up.im really nervous about pursing nursing but your words are definitely comfort.thank you jailrn:nurse: and shell911 rn:nurse:

shell911rn · Aug 12, 2007

Good luck Henryswife! We definitely need nurses. You will have a leg up working in a correctional facility as far as the games the inmates play. Just remember that when you get your nursing license and start in a correctional facility, you are beholden to your license. I've seen nurses allow themselves to reduce their standards of care rather than advocate for an inmate against custody because it was easier to do. On the flip side, I've seen custody advocate for inmates because a nurse wouldn't. Be professional, be safe, and be cautious. You'll experience a lot of things in nursing school, too, that will change you. Take care.

Sheri257 · Aug 12, 2007

I've seen nurses allow themselves to reduce their standards of care rather than advocate for an inmate against custody because it was easier to do.

I know exactly what you mean ...

I had to fight against this just recently although, custody wasn't the problem but a tech who worked on this unit. For whatever reason, the RN on this unit (who was on vacation) was allowing this tech to call the shots which meant inmates weren't being seen for anything ... at all. Nothing, not even basic blood pressure checks, was being done.

I told her it was MY license and to back off. Sure, like anywhere else ... some of the inmate claims were bogus (which was her argument not to see them) ...

BUT ... I'd have to say at least 50 percent of the inmates' complaints were legit ... nobody was even bothering to pull the charts to check to see what was happening (or not) with the inmates' care.

Anyway ... this tech was so frustrated with me that she called out sick for the rest of the week, which was fine by me because I was going to report her to my supervisors if she gave me any more trouble.

Yes, things do get screwed up with the shear volume of medical requests we have to deal with on a daily basis but, just about everyone I've worked with so far has been willing to help fix the problems.

But this was the first time since I've worked at CDCR that a staffer blatantly lied to me and deliberately tried to convince me to deny inmates care. It was infuriating, to say the least.