susan18

i started out as a secondary ed major, concentrating on french and spanish, as i thought i was going to become a foreign language teacher. my father (bless him) in 1973 said to me, "what are you going to do as a young wife and mother to support yourself well, in case you are widowed? teachers do not make much, and the field is glutted with them now. what if there is another depression or a stock market crash? can you guarantee your skills as a language teacher are going to carry you through? how about nursing/ you are compassionate and bright. i know you would make a fine nurse!" fast forward to 1974: i went into an adn program in 1974. my marriage ended and i had to stop as an lpn and go into the work force with a 2 year old child at home. i persisted, and returned part-time to college in 1978 to begin getting those wonderful credit hours for the "core" of a bsn. by then i was working in an icu in chicago. i continued working full-time (12-hr. nights) all through school, and went fulltime my junior and senior years at loyola u. of chicago. i do not know how i did it, but i graduated with honors in 1983. fast forward to the present: i have had a varied exciting career! i worked in critical care and ed for27 years. i served my country as an army reserve nurse officer from 1984-1992, and entered the correctional healthcare venue in 2002. i presently work as a nurse educator for the largest prison in n.c., and am halfway through graduate school for an msn in healthcare systems management. the first child is a wonderful 35 yr. old chemical engineer/paramedic-instructor/firefighter captain. she went into emergency medical services on the side due to what she says was the thrill of watching her mother enjoy her nursing career in critical care. the moral of my story: do not ever say you cannot do or achieve any professional goal. if you desire it badly enough, you will make it happen. i hate hearing people complain about facets of their professional growth being difficult. nothing worth having is ever easy. you will cherish it so much more for the blood, sweat and tears of working towards it.

I work as a correctional nurse educator. We discourage verbal orders as well, unless there is a life-threatening event transpiring. We hand the doc the order sheet, smile, and say, "Please just write it". For telephone orders, the nurse is required to read back the full order for clarification. This is safe practice. Then the order is written, and finalized at the end by : T.O. Dr Jones / N. Nurse RN May 25, 2007, 1107

I agree with arciedee's reply to you. I wrote my personal statement in a similar format, and got accepted to my school right away. Let your heart show through, be sure you state your goals clearly as to why you want an advanced nursing degree, what you plan to do with it, etc. List qualities that make you a good candidate for school. Have someone you like who has been through grad school review your statement. Be sure you have nO spelling or grammar errors in the document. List any computer strengths that you have also, that make you a worthwhile student candidate. Don't spas about it; just do it, and good luck to you!!! susan18

I am currently enrolled in Loyola Univ. of New Orleans' online Health Care Systems Management MSN curriculum, and I absolutely love it! I am a nurse educator for a large state correctional facility, and plan to teach after I graduate. I am also a Loyola U. of Chicago undergrad, and knew from my undergrad curriculum that I would get a great graduate education through Loyola, though I thoroughly researched other schools! The HCSM emphasis prepares one as an advanced nurse administrator, with the tools to move throughout the US health care systems confidently in whatever venue one chooses to work in. I chose it rather than nursing education as a curriculum, because I can teach with any Masters', in the part-time format I want to, in an associate degree nursing program. Loyola was reasonable fee-wise, and their information technology support is fantastic! I have made wonderful online pals as classmates. We are a class of about 100. I work full-time, am a single mom of 2 teens, and am carrying a 4.0 due to the ease of this program, which is fully NLN-accredited. If anyone is interested, please check Loyola out. Their web address is Welcome to Loyola University New Orleans Best of luck to finding your best "fit" in grad school! Susan

Reply to ORCA: Our state prison also posts these appointment lists. We post all Med Clinic appts., all Dental Clinic appts., all sick call appointments in the dorm nursing stations ( have 4 units of these, plus seg, which we give the posting list only to custody for ). The lists get made up and distributed by 2pm the day before appointments to the mailboxes of the dorm custody officers, who do the postings. We also post these lists in a locked outdoor bulletin board near the dining hall. Our prison is set up like a campus, and inmates are housed in dorms unless they are in segregation (then they are single-celled). They have jobs during the day and evening, attend college classes, GED training, etc, so they are out and about and can check out the list by the dining hall. This system has worked well for us for many years, with a population of inmates close to 1300. The only appointments we do not post, but use a call-up system for, are the specialty clinic appointments when we use contract providers from outside, who hold clinics at certain times of the month. Med Clinic handles these, too, and has to call each dorm to have the inmate report. It usually works out, also. Does that help at all? :)

Reply to WRCRN: My state prison uses Med Techs, but they are always CNA II's with 1 yr. experience, and we in DOC in our state have to train them through not only a 40-hr. course we administer (that I teach as a nurse educator to these Med techs) but they must also take a final exam, and then complete a clinical skills checklist that is quite involved, for 3 times on each item. Only an RN can sign the tech off. Once the checklist is complete, a certificate is issued from our Nursing Education Dept. that these Med techs have successfully completed the DOC med Tech course, and they are allowed to pass meds (no IM or SQ, or any insulins) to our inmates. We have a prison population of 1300. My state is on the forefront of all this in the South. I don't totally agree that the use of these techs is any answer, but we as RNs in the DOC system have clear guidelines from our Board of Nursing re their role, and our responsibility, where it starts, and also what it encompasses. The techs cannot do any patient teaching, for example. In the NC DOC we have more than 100 techs already since late 2001, and the goal is for 250. All in all, they fulfill a role, but I am kind of old fashioned, and feel licensed staff only should administer meds.

We have an Infection Control nurse position in our state prison. The position works mostly with interviewing inmates who have been through a positive TB screen, or had a positive Mantoux test, or come in with a positive RPR from outside. The Infection Control nurse is in frequent contact with the different health depts., the county jails for records, and interfaces with our Chronic Disease nurse clinician a lot. We have HIV inmates, of course, so that is also an area where this position's nurse assists the chronic disease nurse. I believe it requires a BSN for our position, and the pay grade is comparable with nurse clinicians. I see the Infection Control nurse call inmates up to our Outpatient area for one on one discussion and info gathering all the time. She is very well received by both staff and inmates. She serves as a valuable resource to staff who have to read the TB tests for inmates ( we are a processing center as well as a max security prison), and can be consulted if the staff do the TB screening form, and there are some positive risk answers and symptoms present. She jumps into action then, and interfaces with providers to get the inmate to isolation, etc. and to track any contacts that may have occurred. The Infection Control nurse also asists with annual staff TB skin testing at our facility each October.As far as working with inmates, I found the transition fairly easy when I started as a correctional nurse. You should receive Undue Familiarity training or something like that as a new employee, to help you learn the different dynamics with this population group. Remember that inmates are people, with hearts and minds, too. The way you perceive them and the way you treat them will be noted BY them, and you will either be respected, or hounded to death. I always kept my word with my inmates, treated them like patients first, and it has paid off. Hope you decide to go for this position. I think you'd like it.

reply to serenaT: I am a nurse educator in the NC correctional system. I was an ICU nurse, with an ER subspecialty, for 28 yrs until my career change. I have been doing this educator/staff developer thing for a year now, and love it! Because I have a family and it is full-time, I keep up in several ways. 1) I also go online to many bookmarked websites, read all I can, print stuff out for my staff 2) I subscribe to a nursing journal that is predominantly med-surg in focus, which works for the knid of inmate patients we work with 3) I asked for, and got, permission to precept all new hire RNs through the busiest unit in our prison one on one , 4) I attend any seminars I feel would be helpful to my practice and teaching, and lastly 5) I pinch-hit on that unit whenever there is severe weather and they expect the clinicians and managers to make it in, until the regular staff show up- did it last week, in fact. Fell right back into the role as lead nurse again! Hope this helps...

In Raleigh its mostly 12 hr shifts, 7 to 7, 3 one week, and 3 with an 8 the 2nd week. We have Baylor contract positions in some hospitals and float pool 8 and 12 hr shifts. I went into correctional nursing to get solid 8 hr shifts, which I could only find if I went into office practice forever, or worked long term care. The state employees have to work every 3rd weekend only. The 8 hr shifts are 0645-1515, 1445-1115, and 1045-0715 so that the shifts overlap during report. I love the 8 hr shifts...I do them even as a nurse educator, but no weekend duty, only call q 8th weekend by phone.

I remember having to wear my cap until about 1980. I was in ICU by then, and we all voted to not wear them, except on Nurses Week in May each yr. for fun. My cap is pretty traditional with one red velvet band across it. It reposes in a spot on the shelf of my closet in a tightly closed plastic bag, with my capping ceremony program. I used to like to wear it years ago, but only to keep my French twist anchored up under it! I could not WAIT to ditch the white polyester pantsuits and dress uniforms for ICU scrubs in 1979, and never looked back!:chuckle

reply to ferfer- boy, do i remember these feelings! i was an lpn and a single mom, trying to work 3 12 hr night shifts per wk and get my bsn as a "generic" student, not rn completion. i felt like i lived, slept, breathed nursing. there were only tiny periods to come up for air, like wed. night church no matter what, so i could connect with non-nurses(!) and sun. am church when i would fall asleep as soon as the pastor started his sermon, me having been up all night! my first child was 11 when i got my bsn, and those last 2 years on her were hard. we never had the time we needed, it seemed. she is 31 today and is a chemical engineer and paramedic. i did it to protect my job in the early 80's when lpns were being phased out of hospitals back to nursing homes, etc. take a deep breath, look up, and count your blessings, because in a short time, you will be tossing your tassle as a graduate, and then you never have to go back again to school unless you choose to! i said i would never go back, and i decided this week to start an msn in 2 years when my son is done with high school! i found that power napping helped me... i used to fall asleep across desks, couches, etc. and my friends or family would wake me up for lectures, etc. i also didn't run all over with my child during the busy school times; i just geared down as much as possible. listen to music you like when you can, eat chocolate( raises that old serotonin!) and do whatever you know works to de-stress you. i took many baths to candlelight with a glass of wine nearby! words are powerful things, too, so if you are going around bad-mouthing your life or your situation, words can have a very self-fulfilling prophecy. speak the best about yourself, these last weeks, your future. be good to yourself. you will make a wonderful nurse, and someday you may encourage another new practitioner like i hope i am you. let us know how graduation and boards are!!! susan18

Our prison divided the sick call process up by dorms where the inmates live. We only have RNs do sick call. We schedule sick calls every 15 min. from about 0800 to 1300 with a 45 min. break somewhere between 1045-1130 so the RN can come up for air. There are currently 3 dorm areas and 1 segreagation area where sick call is done.There are small nurses stations in each area. One of the dorms was so backlogged for the past year with overflowing sick calls, that we began to do that dorm on weekends as well, and now are caught up. This is to keep in mind that our facility is a state prison with 1300 women. We also have Med Clinic visits,and specialty clinics running some days of the month. If we are short of an RN for a particular sick call assignment, we are forced to hold sick call up in the Outpatient area, which ties up an RN who is working Outpatient that day. But we manage. We generally do not ever have sick call on weekends or holidays, except for the weekend catch-up attempt I told you about with the one busy dorm. I also hope we will not continue that on weekends, as it could start a trend among the inmates to "flood" the sick call box so that we have to do this with other dorms!

reply to Blackcat 99: Yes, I do live and work in Raleigh. It is a great place to live. I say that because I spent years in Chicago with awful winter weather, and I do not like snow at all! And here I was raised in Pa., where we also get alot of cold weather! What is also good here is that we have UNC and Duke nearby, and the big medical center, Wake Med, with many educational offerings and seminar opportunities. I go to some things at UNC that are offered. Yes, there are 2 large state prisons in Raleigh, and a federal prison north of here in Butner, about 1 hr. away. The womens' prison is where I work (NC Corr. Institution for Women) and is a close custody, maximum security prison laid out like a campus. Central Prison is right down the road about 2 miles, and is also max. security, for males. That one is all self-enclosed, with interconnecting buildings. Both of our prisons have Death Row inmates. NCCIW is located adjacent to the downtown area, easy to get to, and 15 min. from my home in SE Raleigh. We also have 2 nearby minimum security facilites in Raleigh, Raleigh Corr. for Women, right near NCCIW, and Wake Corr. for male inmates, which I believe is a work-release facility. If you do ever decide to relocate to Raleigh, I would be happy to help you any way I can. I know the state nurse recruiter for corrections very well. Send me a private message if you decide to, and I'll answer. susan18

Reply to nursecookie9503: County jails are alot different than state and federal prisons as far as women go. Have you any opportunity to try a larger prison job, like state or federal? I work in the largest prison in NC, which is all female, and we notice that our new intake prisoners from jails take awhile to settle down, and settle in. Maybe it is the environment there. I really enjoy working in a state prison. We have 1300 women in ours, and also house death row inmates.

In answer to Blackcat99: I am an ICU nurse of nearly 30 years. I left critical care 2 years ago to work in a maximum security state female prison, and I love it! I started as a staff RN, was promoted to lead RN, then 1 year ago accepted the nurse educator/clinician role. We have nearly 1300 women, and yes, it is taxing at times. Women are more manipulative, but they are also people, and our patients. They are mothers, daughters, wives, and mixed up people. Because I have cared only for women in the correctional setting, I cannot address the difference between men and women there. But I feel I am in a safer situation, as women are historically less violent, and that I make a difference in their lives when I train and nuture my staff. I have no regrets over my career change, and wish I'd done it sooner, actually. I welcome any further way I can be of help in this forum, with a positive view of liking what I do in corrections. Thanks!