camost

Another nurse called the charge nurse and said get over here quick, they are fighting in the nurses station. We did this last year... it was my house sup's birthday. She was downstairs on a smoke break. We set up the break room for her birthday, cake, candles, and a few gifts. Then we called her on the cell phone and told her that me and another nurse were getting into it. (the two of us were in the background, making fight sounds, including punches) When the house sup got up there we broke out into Happy Birthday. Oh yeah, we got her a Ouija Board for her birthday since she was into ghost stories. She was too afraid to take it home, so it sat in the break room for weeks.

Not a Fool's Day prank, but fun nonetheless... I used to work at a Job Corps Center. On Wednesdays, the new enrollees would come thru medical for their physical. One aspect was a urine drug screen. Gotta love apple juice and specimen cups. Its funny how you can tell the first person in line that you test for drugs by tasting the urine and all the rest of them fall for it in turn... Once, while working CCU on nights... We got a new tele box set up in a room. We needed to test it, so I got hooked up to the monitor. Then, as a goof, we jiggled the wires to make it show V-tach. The poor monitor tech was calling code blue before it even dawned on her that there wasn't a patient in that room. (It was a slow night and even the code blue team thought it was funny.) Oh, and right after I got my kitten this year, I went to a pot luck dinner. I made kitty litter cake. It was very realistic looking. And very delicious!

The one I work for pays the same as the state facilites. The insurance is comparable. For me, the cleanliness and the safety is more important. If I had to, I would give up a dollar or two an hour if that meant I worked in a safer facility. The facility I work at has never had a hostage situation in the entire time it's been open.

Positive suitcase sign - those FFs in the psych unit who come to the ER with a packed suitcase. I've actually seen this one in a medical chart. And I sometimes suffer from Optic Rectumitis - a crappy outlook on life. camost

From what I've seen, private correctional facilites are nice, cleaner, safer, and over all better. But, that's just what I've seen. I work for a large private correctional company, but 3 days into the job I'm not sure how biased I'm in. I'm comparing what I see to what I've heard from my friends working in state facilities. As far as that goes, google private corrections and see what comes up. I'd tell you the website to my company if I wouldn't get in trouble. As far as skills, remember this, you are going to be a first responder to a lot of things. Fights, stabbings, riots, etc. There will also be a lot of "boring" pill passes and sprained ankles. And lots of intake assessments. As medical in a prison, you will see these people before they can get sent out to ERs for major injuries. Remember that. Cause it can get pretty ugly when the patients aren't cleaned up before you get them. But, I don't think this will be a boring job. Also, if you are easily manipulated, might want to work on that before you work corrections. These people have 24 hours a day to work on new scams. You will get nice ones, but you have to remember where you are.

Hi. I'm an LPN in Oklahoma. I work at a private mens medium security facility in northwest Oklahoma. Today was only my 3rd day, so I'm still in class. From what I've seen and friends I have who work in corrections, I'm more likely to get injured on the drive to work than at work. I am constantly on camera. There is a CO posted in medical. We have 4 cells in medical and depending on the inmate, they might not be handcuffed when they are out of the cell. Our inmates come from out of state and Oklahoma restricts the type of offenders we can get. That makes it a bit easier. My only concern is that all facility staff, even the laundry supervisor, get trained to be COs, even if they aren't going to work as one. The only exception to that rule is medical staff. We get the first week of the training, but it is mainly policy and procedures. We don't learn take down techniques or pressure points. We will get a radio with a "man down" button and there are panic buttons on the walls. One thing that intrigues me is if there is an "event" (apparently you don't say the "r" or "e" words here) then all staff are called in, even if you only left 2 hours ago. So, theoretically, I could be working nights and be at home sleeping between shifts and if something went down, I would get called in early. I'm not upset about that, I mean, if it were me working when that happened, I'd sure want everyone up there. I know that this soon into the job, when I haven't even made it to my post yet, I really can't know what the job is going to be like, but these are my observations so far. BTW, I worked at a small town nursing home and we had another staff memeber come in after their shift ended, drunk and waving a gun, saying he was going to take care of all the nurses. I feel infinitely more safe in the prison.