nursinunderpressure

I am glad this has come up as a topic. I am a nurse that works in a prison. I have worked there for 5 years, and my husband has worked their as a correctional supervisor for 23 years. I see both sides of this issue. Correctional Managed Care (is what we call it) is a totally different kind of nursing than any kind of nursing. It does go against certain rules we are taught as nurses. And, I wish there would be more education and teaching on this type of nursing care. You do the best you can. I know who my patients are and I choose not to know what they did. Fortunately, we have a hospital near by that is just for prisoners. The number of officers guarding a prisoner depends on their level of security. And, take it from someone who knows, that is a tax expense I don't mind paying. There is a reason they need that much security and you probably don't want to know why. Some of these individuals are extremely dangerous. Not all of them, but some are. You do your nursing to the best of your ability, and you can be the patient's advocate, but the security is a necessity. That officer is also under stress, worrying about themselves, their co-workers, their families, and the public in general. In this type of nursing, you must be as professional as possible. And, in most cases, you can explain to the officers what you need as far as the patient's medical needs, and they will accommodate those requests to their best of their abilities. We actually have an opposite problem. When we are unable to send an inmate to our specific prisoner hospital, they are sent to local hospitals. And, it is the staff at the hospitals that treat the patient badly, and it is not only the patients that tell us what happened, it is also the officers who tell us that the patient was treated awful. I just believe that if we were all more educated on both sides, we would be able to come up with solutions that could benefit everyone involved. Thanks. :)

I work in a maximum security prison. I feel more safe there than I did at the hospital. I know most facilities don't have this, but we each have our own radios, that are assigned to us personally, that have body alarms. So, if I hit the button on my body alarm, they know who I am and where I am and they send assistance immediately. Again, as others have stated, you need to be aware of your surroundings and don't become complacent. I, too, have been assaulted as a nurse.. but not in the prison.

I have just joined this site and I was reading the posts and was prompted to join and post a reply. When I started working in a prison I had no idea if it would be me for me or not, and we all know there are nurses that are great nurses, but correctional nursing isn't for them. I, too, watched staff scream, yell, and do things I could never see myself doing. I learned something on my own, R-E-S-P-E-C-T. I found you can be firm and still be respected. Where I work, respect is very important to our prisoners. They want you to respect them, so I made it clear to those that I had to, that if respect is wanted then it must be given. I found this works alot better than yelling, screaming, etc. Usually, when I do have a problem with a couple of them, I tell them that they have disrespected me. And, I seem to get better results than the other staff that scream, yell, etc.