does prison nursing affect your home life?

Specialties Correctional

Published

I read in someones post recently that when a person has been doing prison nursing for a while it effects your home life, most significantly your relationships with your partner and friends,,,

does it change the way you are emotionally? are u selling your soul to the devil? are only certain people supseptible to this or is it it totally untrue?

Specializes in Emergency; Corrections.

A myth. I do Correctional & ER Nursing. ER nursing is way more stressful. I get assaulted verbally and physically in the ED on a daily basis, more than I ever have working in a prison.

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Specializes in GI, Home Health-Infusions, Med-Surg.
Is it typical in corrections to have ID badges that display your full name? I think I would be terrified of being seeked out by an inmate with a grudge who was just released. In what ways are you able to protect yourself from this sort of thing?

I work on a secured floor at a hospital and we are locked in. We have officers here with us the whole time, never alone when we enter a patient's/inmate's room. As far as the name goes, we're not allowed to wear our badges ever. It's the policy. I always tell them I'm Mrs. (last name) and I will be your nurse for the night. The floor is actually owned by the state here.

As far as it actually affecting home life. I'm a pretty tough person to get to so it doesn't really. They've said things that are inappropriate, the main thing is to put them in their place from the get go. If they sense you are a weak one then they will play on that.

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Specializes in ER- Correctional.

I have been working in Corrections for 10 years,(Emergency Room 7 years prior) Working in an ER changed me, as you see patients at their worse. I can't count the times, when I worked ER,that someone threated to come back & shoot the place up..because they didn't get the drugs, treatment ,etc that they wanted. Corrections is basically the same, except you know who the "bad guys" are. I have more security around me now, that I ever had working ER. You learn to spot manipulators, fakers, stalkers, etc...You learn to manipulate people yourself...After all, you learn from the best, the inmates.You become a product of your environment..If you show any fear, or sign of weakness, you are like a wounded Wilda beast of the Serengeti..so it does toughen you up some, & has made me a more aggressive person.JMO

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Specializes in Corrections, Pediatrics, Adult Health ...

I can honestly say it changed my homelife for the better. I pay a lot more attention to detail and what is happening around me.

My (now ex) husband couldn't handle it. He says I became somewhat of a "man-hater" ... but I had to explain in explicit detail of what type of men I was encountering on a daily basis ... I think he understands a great deal better now! My son ... thinks Mom has the coolest job, but knows he can't hide anything because at any random moment we can have a "junk on the bunk" search. :coollook: My parents ... it's the first time they have left me alone in years! God is great!

As for inmates knowing who I am ... I work in a county facility (male and female) at the intake level. I see them just off the streets when they are intoxicated, injured and just plain ignorant. After that, they are housed. If they see me then, they are usually pretty apologetic. If I happen to care for them then, I have faith in my abilities to know that I have done my job well, that I have treated everyone with respect (even if they have treated me with none) to know that if I run into them at the local Wal-Mart (which has happened more than once), I usually get a "Hello" and sometimes a "Hey, I have been clean for XX amount of days ..."

Just because they are inmates, doesn't mean they are any less our patients ... even though at times it is comforting to know we work in the only place that we can tell someone "take this suppository and shove it where the sun don't shine!" and seriously get away with it.

~Amy

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Correctional.

Working as a correctiona nurse has not affected my home life. But of course I have no more children at home, mine are all grown. My husband has been very supportive of me working in the local jail. When I come home in the evenings he always wants to know what happened at work today. The only crap I receive is from my co-workers thinking I am to nice to the inmates. I don't feel that way. I did develope a potty mouth for a while, but I am determined to do the Lords work. I hear a lot of garbage come from inmates and officers mouths, but I give it all to the Lord. I have found now that I no longer have a potty mouth and I very much love my job and wouldn't want to be anywhere else unless the Lord takes me elsewhere. All of my family is very supportive

even my children and grandchildren. God is very good to me!

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Specializes in critical care, med surg, correctional.

Been a nurse for over 25 years. Now doing Correctional Nursing for approx the last 10....don't find that working in a prison is causing any negative effects on my home life....as a matter of fact, the physical demand of working in ICU/Med Surg exhausted me more, which I guess did effect my personal life....In my case, Correctional Nursing has much less physical demands than bedside nursing...but I would think that would depend of where you are working.....If you are the type of person to "bring your work home with you", then any job you have is going to cause problems....

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Specializes in Hospice, ALF, Prison.

Yeh. My spouse had to deal with my unlimited joy in saving a life, and my urge to learn everything I could about new things I was challenged with during the last shift. My borders expenses are now limited.

I had to adjust to the phone not ring when I wasn't working.

My spouse has to deal with my happiness when I go to work.

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Specializes in mental health; hangover remedies.

I found the secure mental health made me more argumentative and verbally aggressive in general.

Correctionals was less intense and I never had a bad day in the 2 years I worked casual.

Originally Posted by Pipsqueak viewpost.gif

Is it typical in corrections to have ID badges that display your full name? I think I would be terrified of being seeked out by an inmate with a grudge who was just released. In what ways are you able to protect yourself from this sort of thing?

You know their name, their face, their history and they know you know.

I've never had a bad encounter with a pt/inmate outside - even the psychopaths were friendly.

I honestly think this fear of being hunted down and pursued is so out of proportion.

[in the secure mental health - it was handy getting on with the patients - as I locked my keys in the car one day so I took one of the guys with 'a history' for a walk..... :) And I was even more assured that know he knew my car he wold be less inclined to take it!]

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I think it matters a lot what prison you are at. I have seen a lot of other facilities in other states where it is pretty bad, but at mine it is OK most of the time. We are a very nice medium security facility (i.e. most inmates would rather be with us than other facilities in our system), and our security staff could teach Cesar Millan about correcting bad behavior quickly. The inmates are all aware that we almost never give narcs, and malingering is a pretty sure ticket to segregation, so the manipulation is there, but controlled. Compared to my ICU job, where I have been assaulted multiple times, have patients daily trying to manipulate for drugs, and deal with the most non-compliant of the non-compliant, it is almost like a vacation to go to jail. Mostly my wife is happy with the fact that I am much less stressed and get to spend more time with the kids.

And for the badge argument, every time I see a patient (or even a chart), the patient gets my full name, so the badges aren't really an issue. Besides, my badge is my ticket out at the end of the day, so I don't have a problem with it.

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Great question -

I have worked in the jail as a nurse and NP for over 5 years. I think it has made me a better person. Less judgemental, less focused on small irritance in life - more grateful for the life I have.

Sometimes it can be hard to shake off the despair that is around you all day - but as long as you are respectful of the patients (no matter what they do) they generally are respectful to you.

I wonder how prison would be different. I have always worked in a jail.

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This thread was very interesting and helpful. I am starting a Correctional job soon and although I'm not intimidated as I'm a petite thang - I wonder what I will be exposed to. I do not worry about getting hurt as CO are ALWAYS present when you are w/an inmate and I'm told you are safer inside than you are on the streets. So we'll see how it goes....I'm very interested in what I'm going to see and learn!

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I've worked in corrections for a year now, and one of the main things I love about it is that it is usually quite easy to leave my workday at the gate. We are getting a sophisticated home security system for piece of mind even though I work at a level 5 camp and most of my guys are there for life. Also, there are nights when I dream that the offenders and my children are near each other (I'll dream thier school is on the prison grounds etc) and on those nights I never rest. Also, I've had 2 nurses confide in me that for a short time after having an inmate expose themselves - usually the first time, they experienced some anxiety while being intimate with thief boyfriend/ spouse.

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