Now I know this field may not be for all, but I know this field is for me! Also it may be different in all facilities, but my facility, is great! We have a wonderful team with all different levels of education, (ranging lpn~ DNP) but when we hit that unit, we are ALL nursing working as a smooth flowing team. The admin, DON, Nurse Manager, Charge Nurse are ALWAYS hands on, on the floor working side by side with their nurses, not just pushing papers shouting orders, everybody is given their equal amount of work, and although there is never a dull moment, when stress comes, it does not come between this team of nurses, thanks to excellent management!
Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.
I'm an LVN & work at a detention center. My day consists of lots of e-mail, paperwork & sick calls. If they need me I do intakes as well. Nothing is on the computer so it is a LOT of paper work. When an emergency happens I have to respond accordingly & promptly. We also have 2 days the doctor comes, 1 day the NP comes & psych comes on the weekends. So we have to get all the vitals & help both of them. Then transcribe the orders, either to return to the clinic or order meds. Even though it's a 12 hour shift, most of my days fly by & there's still a lot to get done.
I work at the largest populated jail in America and I love it. Its tough to have what you need since its the county but we do the best with what we have. We do pill calls that consist of packing/providing around 150-200 inmates with medications. Its crazy if you think about it. "Man Down" assistance just like codes in hospitals, wound care, accuchecks, etc.[/quote']
I have been working at a county correctional facility for about 3 weeks now as an LPN. I work 7am-7pm shift, the first thing in the morning is passing meds. Some lockdown units are approved for pre-packaging meds (which is awesome cause it's so much quicker and sometimes it can get LOUD in there). I pass meds for about 150-200 patients. I try to get my daily BP checks done at this time as well and COWS/CIWA if the chronic care nurse is not doing them that day. I am usually done by 12 when I come back and get my sick calls and PPD placements (maybe 4-8 sick calls and 0-12 PPD's). I try to take lunch and look over my sick calls so I have an idea of what I'm assessing for each patient. The sick calls are usually "my back hurts" "I have a rash on ...." "I woke up with chest pain" or "I need to see a dr." where we just have to go and find out the issue and report back, put them on a protocol med (like tylenol for pain or MOM for constipation), this is also the time I do a few 2pm meds and any wound care (usually just a bandage change though I had a new inmate with infected stitches I refused to touch and sent him down to medical instead). I try to get done with all of that by 3ish so I can jump at the PA or MD before they leave and get any orders from them or just go over a few of the sick calls together. After that it's catch-up time, charting, stocking the med-cart, and just getting ready to do accuchecks at 5pm which can be 5-15 patients. Usually I'm done by 6 and just finish up charting and going over everything that happened for the day with my supervisor and doing little house-keeping stuff in the pharmacy area. Throughout all of this you may have an inmate in the ERC chair that you are doing strap checks on every 2 hours, running to a man-down code, doing a segregation check for new inmates to lockdown etc. so being organized and giving yourself time to complete everything is crucial for success.
OrganizedChaos, LVN
1 Article; 6,883 Posts
I'm an LVN & work at a detention center. My day consists of lots of e-mail, paperwork & sick calls. If they need me I do intakes as well. Nothing is on the computer so it is a LOT of paper work. When an emergency happens I have to respond accordingly & promptly. We also have 2 days the doctor comes, 1 day the NP comes & psych comes on the weekends. So we have to get all the vitals & help both of them. Then transcribe the orders, either to return to the clinic or order meds. Even though it's a 12 hour shift, most of my days fly by & there's still a lot to get done.