Nurses Misbehaving While Caring For Inmates

[nursejudy15209]

Yes, I am disturbed about the bad reputation nurses are gaining at the correctional facility where I work.

One gave inmates Ultram in large quantities without an order, the other smuggled cell phones and cigarettes into the jail, and here's the latest - another just got arrested for inappropriate sexual relations with inmates.

What the heck is going on? Of course these nurses were arrested and entered the jail from the "other side of the fence". I guess I'm just baffled. I wouldn't think that nurses would engage in such behavior ESPECIALLY when our DON issued many warnings about what not to do when working as a nurse in corrections.

Needless to say, our reputation for being "the angels of mercy" that dignifies nurses around the world, is pretty much gone south. I feel that our respectability as a group has been comprimised and it just angers me. By the way, these separate incidents have happened in the short span of 3 months. Has the world gone crazy or is it just me?

What about your correctional facility? Have you ever heard of such things going on where you work? I even had a run in with somthing when I trusted the wrong person who happened to make an appearance in the medication room where I was pouring pills. Needless to say -- when it comes to narcotics, I have learned not to trust anybody! Nobody gets the chance to get that close to me or my cart again. But everything turned out OK, but I can't say the same for these other nurses. I might have been a "target" or "victim" but that's not the case with these people. They knowingly took advantage of what they thought was an easy way to get around the system built to protect those working.

Everybody gets caught sooner or later, but now that things have come to light, it makes those who actually work hard and do their jobs - uncomfortable. These nurses were my colleagues. I thought they were people who chose nursing because most of the time we do perform some kind of necessary function even if our only "patients" are those wearing jail uniforms.

Anybody with thoughts on this rather different and uncomfortable topic?

[tbrd450]

I have headache. I need a nurse.

Orca, are you out there? I'm a little worried about you. Come back and join in the discussion, please?

I fear that writing on the wall is coming in to focus on this end as well.

[deyo321]

Where is the @#$!% ignore button!

[Anne128]

Get a grip Tbrd-

I misread your question.. I thought your question was "all you would do is document?" I said absolutely not in response. Take a deep breath. Enough already. You should find a bleeding hearts offender advocate board to rant and rave about the injustices on.. clearly you are barking up the wrong tree here in a forum of professional nurses that actually have experience in corrections. Your silence in regard to your credentials answered my question. Thanks.

[katkonk, BSN, RN]

I think the best strategy is to just ignore him. He/she obviously has chosen the wrong group to lecture to about humanity, and as evidenced by his verbosity, just wants attention. Don't respond anymore and he MAY go away. Or he can just continue to talk to himself. To the previous poster...I'm with you! Where is the IGNORE BUTTON??

[Anne128]

I agree.. time to stop feeding the trolls.

[tbrd450]

Anne128, I sort of thought maybe you didn't really mean "absolutely not" (re: doing nothing more than documenting). But thanks for clarifying. And, thanks for the advice - I did take a few deep breaths and that seemed to do the trick. I realize my passion for human rights sometimes drives my keypad with abandon -- I actually spilled a full bag of Rainbow Skittles midway through my previous post!

Even accounting for the misunderstanding on the question ("absolutely not"), I am a little dissappointed you only responded with "No fear reporting up until someone in authority responded." I was hoping to hear a bit more of a detailed, drastic and immediate response strategy on behalf of the 125 pound, 18 year old traffic offender on his way to his life-altering abuse. I'm not even sure what that means exactly (No fear reporting up until someone in authority responded.), honestly. Does that mean you would begin leaving messages with Warden Willie's secretary as the kid is hand-delivered down the hall, through the whistling and catcalls, to the rapists? Probably just a misunderstanding on the premise of the what-if. While I'm not a correctional nurse, I don't need such credentials to know that in that same situation here is what I would have done:

1. I would have walked directly up to Moe (ignoring his uniform stripes) and told him that he should not be placing that kid in that cell. To do so is an abuse of power. To do so is heinous and absurd. And, should he do so, I would return to my nurses station and place a 911 call to report a crime in progress.

2. Then, I would have walked directly up to the female correctional officer who, previously, tried minimally to intervene on the kid's behalf. I would have ignored her insecurity and fear, and I would have reminded her that she had both a legal and moral obligation to quickly grow a backbone and deliberately intervene to prevent the crime. I would have told her that going home sick to avoid the moral crisis was not an option.

Anne128, this little what-if exercise, based on an actual correctional environment case in 2003, gets precisely at what I am talking about here when I speak of a fork in the road. The real story in this case is not the story of Moe, Larry and Curly -- those kind of guys are everywhere, in every walk of life, and every profession. It's just that in the correctional environment they are given power to great harm. The real story is the bystanders -- the enablers. They have the forks to contend with. I think is perfectly valid for someone considering a career in correctional nursing to partake of these what would I do exercises.

Anne128, if my message about humane treatment, caring and consideration, and yes even that dreaded "empathy" for everyone including those incarcerated is "barking up the wrong tree" then it is probably true that the message was ignored long before anyone stumbled on to the ignore button. I will say, however, its is obviously clear that I have touched a correctional nerve here -- Deyo is actually blasting me with keypad symbols! That says something to me. That says to me that after probably long after the ignore button is depressed some of what I have written will be seriously considered. And, that's okay.

Anne128, this was never about my credentials. And, I think on some level you know that. This message stands or falls on its own merits.

Good luck with your correctional career. :)

[tbrd450]

I think the best strategy is to just ignore him. He/she obviously has chosen the wrong group to lecture to about humanity, and as evidenced by his verbosity, just wants attention. Don't respond anymore and he MAY go away. Or he can just continue to talk to himself. To the previous poster...I'm with you! Where is the IGNORE BUTTON??

KatKonk,

Okay, I know I can be a bit obtuse at times.... but I'm pretty certain I'm picking up a negative vibe here.

[sadie252]

We just had 2 nurses and a CO get fired for having relationships and smuggling in drugs. I agree with the comment that small favors turn into bigger ones. I do NO favors and do not trust ANY inmate. I am not there to be a friend. Corrections is a different kind of nursing. If you have not worked it, you cannot understand.

[heron, ASN, RN]

KatKonk,

Okay, I know I can be a bit obtuse at times.... but I'm pretty certain I'm picking up a negative vibe here.

No "vibe" about it ... it's all quite explicit. You have repeatedly dodged the direct questions asking about your credentials and experience in correctional nursing. Although I have stopped reading your posts in their entirety (hint: paragraphs are your friend) I have not yet seen you answer it.

Instead we have been subjected to long-winded and condescending treatises on the failings and pathology of correctional nurses. Feh!

I'm not a corrections nurse myself ... and I really am a bleeding heart liberal, to boot ... and even I am offended.

Go away until you actually know what you're talking about.

[tbrd450]

So this is being read after all. umm... I wonder why. I see that Orca has offered a Kudos.

heron: "No "vibe" about it ... it's all quite explicit. You have repeatedly dodged the direct questions asking about your credentials and experience in correctional nursing. Although I have stopped reading your posts in their entirety (hint: paragraphs are your friend) I have not yet seen you answer it.

Instead we have been subjected to long-winded and condescending treatises on the failings and pathology of correctional nurses. Feh!

I'm not a corrections nurse myself ... and I really am a bleeding heart liberal, to boot ... and even I am offended.

Go away until you actually know what you're talking about.

Okay, now tell me what you really think -- and don't hold back this time!

[nursel56]

QUOTE=tbrd450;4316679]So this is being read after all. umm... I wonder why. I see that Orca has offered a Kudos.

Well, in my case it's an intellectual curiosity about the degree to which a narcissistic personality will continue to engage with professionals in a field he is not a part of and has no business commenting on. It's along the lines of the suspense-release ending of a monster movie when you aren't really sure the beast is really gone, and though you don't want to see it again, you peek through your fingers anyway.

Until proven otherwise, I'm going to assume you are a bored inmate at a Club Fed with internet access and too much free time.

[tbrd450]

Well, in my case it's an intellectual curiosity about the degree to which a narcissistic personality will continue to engage with professionals in a field he is not a part of and has no business commenting on. It's along the lines of the suspense-release ending of a monster movie when you aren't really sure the beast is really gone, and though you don't want to see it again, you peek through your fingers anyway.

Until proven otherwise, I'm going to assume you are a bored inmate at a Club Fed with internet access and too much free time.

nursel56,

Before I go any further, I'm going to have to kindly insist that you put the taser down.

Okay, thank you.

hee hee. "Narcissistic" -- yep, got me there. I can't argue with that. I think I may also have a touch of that Peter Pan complex thing.

Anne128 thinks I'm a new female nurse hoping to revolutionize the field. You think I'm an inmate with Internet access. I am not female. I am not a nurse. I am not an inmate -- I would not do well as an inmate. For one thing, I have a slightly enlarged prostate and would need frequent restroom breaks during my restraint chair time. For another, I'm a soft spoken, well-educated, middle-aged medium build man with modesty issues -- I avoid group showers and commode use.

"you peek through your fingers anyway"

Come on, admit it, you can't help but to read my long-winded run-on sentences, through parted fingers. Honestly, has some of what I have written resonated with you?.. truthfully?

Seriously though, I really think some folks may be reading my posts from a knee-jerk defensive posture expecting something that really isn't there -- it never was. I admire and respect the nursing profession very much. In the correctional setting, your very existence can set the tone for how patients are treated once they return to their cells, or dorms, as inmates. The COs want and expect you to be nurse-like.

I have not/am not saying "correctional nurses are wrong." Why insist on writing that I am doing that -- not you, somebody else wrote something like that. As best I can tell the only thing anyone has disagreed with me on is the empathy thing. I happen to believe that correctional nurses, like nurses in other environments, should possess and utilize clinical empathy. But, wow , the backlash from that has become the real interesting thing here to consider. Why do ideas -- my ideas -- seem so offensive? There appears to be a hypersensitivity to disagreement with any correctional environment conventional wisdom. Why?

The field is changing. Society is re-examining the whole incarceration thing. It's in all the newspapers and on the talk shows. On the front page of the USA Today, the other day, there was a story on the court's latest decision to ban life sentences for juveniles. Fpr heavens sake, YouTube has enough real life examples of those darn, pesky surveillance videos of abuses, beat-downs, strip search humiliations and other degrations to keep the newscasters humming for years to come. Congress is getting involved. The ACLU and the Human Rights Watch are chomping at the bit. And please don't misinterpret my point here -- the environment (not necessarily the staff working in it) is not operating properly. Are there bad staff (Moe, Larry and Curly, for example)? Of course. Are there bad correctional nurses out there? Of course. But the main issue -- inmate on inmate abuse -- appears to be primarily driving these winds of change.

If you read my posts and disagree with me, well, then fine. If you read my posts, disagree with me and get angry with me, well.. maybe something else is gong on ??

You used the words "Club Fed"... can I ask you, does that mean you believe, generally, correctional facilities are too nice and comfy?

You mentioned "bored" and "too much free time"... can I infer from that that maybe you happen to believe, generally, that inmates have too much free time?