stephied

Lilyzhou, Your shadow experience will be very helpful to give you an idea of what OR is really all about. Good luck to you!! Stephied

Thanks to you both. It sounds like some inmates try to be very "creative" in their deception.

Is this something you have ever witnessed? Who would you report it to? Could there be retaliation against you if you did report it?

How much medication would you estimate inmates flush down the toilet in your facility? (a percentage)

Does this apply to every inmate or just psych inmates? How do you check?

Chaoticdreams33, The Canyon College course was $950 for 5 college credit hours and it provides a certificate at the end of the course. I think the course was helpful. You can check it out at "Canyoncollege.edu" or google "Canyon College". It led me to this site that has been extremely helpful. Who better to educate you than the ones who have gone before. Dr Lorry Schoenly RN PhD has a site "correctionalnurse.net" that has a wealth of information. I still haven't heard about the job that I interviewed for but I keep calling them to see if they have made a decision yet. The state doesn't do anything quickly. Good luck to you.

Thanks A New Start, I have see a few unusual metal objects in various places in my career as an OR nurse. I've also seen grown men and women cringe and cry at the sight of a needle but they have tattoos on their body. Go figure!!!

Thanks DEYO321, That clarifies the terms.

I am always happy to see new nurses come to work in OR. We need young nurses to replace us oldies when we retire. I worked 8 years as Lpn- Med/Surg, Pediatrics. Then got my RN and went immediately to OR. 27 years later I'm still there. THe new RN's who came to my OR had gone through a Perioperative 101 course at a local community college then later the OR educator taught the course herself. Then another 4 months of being with a preceptor learning to be a general circulator, then go through specialities. It will take about a year for you feel somewhat comfortable on your own. One thing that will affect your family time-you will have to take call to cover surgeries when they need to be done after regular daytime hours. How much call depends on the particular OR you work in. Good luck to you.

I'm not a corrections nurse YET, but I hope to be soon. I have not worked in ER either but I can see some similarities in both as you both have stated. There are differences too. My background is OR and I've seen the results of what harm people can do to each other. Just as with raising my boys, it was hard to separate their bad behavoir from their "being bad". Every patient situation demands "SAFETY FIRST" that is dicated by the particular situation. I appreciate the comments from all of you as it stimulates me to "think first before I act".

We are trained our entire career as nurses to respond immediately so chance of survival is optimum but prison is a whole different ballgame. Safety for the patient but also SAFETY for everybody else too.

Deyo321, Is an unclothed search different from a strip search or is unclothed a better term than strip? Or is there a clothed search? If there is , does the nurse have any involvement with it? Thanks

Thanks Jaila. You are so right about the ones who don't say or do anything to let others know they are suicidal. They have already made up their mind that life isn't worth living. I had a friend that seemed to be improving from her depression and was functioning pretty well. Several days later she was found dead. Such a tragedy but we can never know the emotional pain they are in.

It sounds like nurses and security can observe the patient constantly. Can the patient also see out of his room to what is going on in the infirmary? Do they have a call button to summon nursing or security for any reason?

Thanks Steristripqueen. I knew about the ACA and NCCHC but I hadn't found the corrections.com site. I have it bookmarked now.