LoriAnnRN

I graduated from UAMS in 1988 and I highly recommend the program. I also had a good friend graduate from UALR and she is also a fine nurse. My brother lives in Conway and is currently checking out AD nursing programs. I realize my post hasn't helped anyone much, but when I see folks from Arkansas I have to reply!! I get all nostalgic.................

Hi Gary! I live and work in the Tampa area. There are two very large county correctional facilities (one in Hillsborough Co. and one in Pinellas Co.) but all of the prisons are out in the boondocks. There is Coleman Correctional Facility up near Bushnell, FL, which is about 2 hours north of Tampa. I think that is the closest one to Tampa. I am thinking, however, that they only hire RN's. Good luck to you; I think the Bay area is great.

I work in a very large (population hovers around 3,000 almost all the time) county jail. We do not have 'open sick call' like some prisons do. The patients submit an '82' form, which is a request for medical attention, and the various medication nurses respond to as many as they can during their 8 hour tour of duty. How many they respond to varies, depending of course on what's going on that day--like how many emergencies, real or pt-imagined, that they have to deal with. The exception to this procedure is in the maximum security section. Max has a nurse assigned to the clinic and his/her job is to do all the treatments, 82's, emergencies, and diabetics on the maximum side. Again, how many 82's they respond to depends on what's going on that day. We have about 30-something diabetics and about 10-20 treatments on dayshift alone. We charge a co-pay of $8 to see the nurse if an 82 has been submitted and we have a book of physician-approved protocols to deal with the common ailments. If the patient is seen by the nurse and then referred on to the mid-level, they are not charged the $8 again when they are seen.

I just wanted to add something--I drew a parallell line between jail inmates and methadone patients because, well frankly, we get a significant number of inmates who are methadone patients. I just went back and read my post and thought someone might say, 'what is she talking about, he's not in jail!' Methadone clinics frequently deal with folks who are familiar with our justice system.

I agree with the above posters; you were not wrong in feeling concerned for your safety. I work in a huge county jail with all manner of pre-trial inmates and I would not feel secure about 'patting down' any of them. We are not taught what to 'pat' for. Some of the inmates fight with the biggest, baddest, deputies you ever saw so I know they would not think twice about kicking the crap out of a nurse. Don't let the instructor discourage you; hang in there.

danvet-I became burned out re: hospital nursing after only 3 years (I was a traveler for a year and a half and I know all about being dumped on). I tried home health on a lark and it turned out to be one of the best changes I've ever made in my life. You get to actually make a difference in your patients' lives. Not all parts of home health are warm and fuzzy, but overall it can be very satisfying. Good luck to you!

Manually is more accurate. We use a Welch-Allyn vital sign machine (aka 'Robo Nurse') but if we get an unusually high or low value we alwayscheck it manually before calling anybody.

I can't go into details about my daily routines, but I did home health for about 8 years and I really enjoyed it. It has it's negatives but remeber this: your worst day in home health is still 5 times better than your worst day in the hospital setting!