psychonurse

Sorry this is the first time that I have seen this post and I am sorry that I didn't see before. We have been having student nurses in our facility off and on for about 3 years. We not only have nurses from the community college ADN program but the state program for BSNs. We let them do a lot of things under the instruction of one of our nurses. We usually have one nurse do the mentoring of the students. They give TB skin tests, insulin, help with the infirmary and watch sick call. When there is time they will even go in and watch the practitioners doing clinic. We also have them spend time with the mental health people so that they know what they do. They sit in on thier counseling sessions and other aspects of that area. I work in a state facility and the nurses really like to work with us. When I was a student we never got to work out there and I would have loved it. I might have started my career with corrections earlier and I could have retired sooner. I had no idea what an interesting area of nursing it can be. I am glad that you enjoyed your time in corrections and I hope that you think about giving us a chance after you graduate in a year after you get some med/surg experience. There is another post somewhere that discusses that. Sonya

Chris.....you are doing a great job.....I would hate to do this job although this year it would have been easy for me as I was off work...but you did great and I am glad that I finally found the post for the list. I got two lists yesterday and I understand why it happened. Thank you again for doing this job for us again. I am mailing out my cards from out of country on Tuesday and if I can find my ink, I will be send some out today but I can't find my black ink anywhere even though I had it at the scrapbook store on Wednesday. There are some that I can do with other colors but I need my black also... And please disregard my post saying that I was going to have my dogs lick the envelops....I didn't even though they were trying to find something fun to do yesterday. I love doing the card exchange and getting cards from all over the country and sometimes the world. And seeing some of the pretty cards is even better.... Sonya :candycane::reef::candle:

Depending on the amount of inmates and how many nurses you have usually determins how many hours that you are there. We have some smaller facilities in our state that only have nurses there for 16 hours a day then someone on call for the last 8 hours. The larger facilities are open 24/7 because there is something going on all the time or you have an infirmary and there has to be a nurse there all the time. And the amount of time the nurses works is different everywhere also. Some places it is totally 8 hours and there is others that work 8's and 10's and then some places use 12 hours. Just depends on the facility and how you set it up. Sonya

I agree totally that you need experience working some med/surg or even ER for a while. You need some time under your belt before you start because you are without a doctor quite a while and while you have nursing protocols, you need some experience before you do things on your own. In our department we never hired nurses until they had at least one year of experience before they applied. Now with the shortage, we take new grads and you can really tell that they haven't had a lot of experience. Find a nice job at a hospital at first and then keep looking for a job in corrections, they come up every once in a while and you will like it a lot better. Sonya

Even though I don't have a lot of posts on here and I have been a member for 8 years I do love the site and I get addicted at times to the site. I use to get on during down times at work and I mostly stayed on the correctional site when at work. I used the time to talk to other correctional nurses and give them information. One day at work I was writing a post on how to get your CCHP (a certification for correctional nurses through the NCCHC). Well one of the other girls at work told my boss that I was in a chat room and even though I told my boss where I was and what I was doing, I am unable to get on this site at work. So I have to get my addiction at home and sometimes there isn't a lot of time to get on here but I try. I love the site and even though I haven't met any of you in real life I feel like I know some of you and consider you my friend. Hope to see you around the site again.:yeah: Sonya

That isn't fair to have someone help you with your cards.....but I guess I could get my puppies to lick the envelopes LOLOLOLOL:D:D:D:)

People are already getting cards and I just found the forum that we are going to have the Christmas list this time....:(. Well maybe the list will come out one more time for little ole me....cause I have a bunch of cards that I would love to send out....they are pretty cute if I say so myself. I have sent an email to chris and to jane to see if the can get me on the list.... Sonya

I have been in corrections for 20 years and I love it totally, you have to mind your ps and qs and be firm, fair and consistent with the inmates and you will do well. You never know what is going to walk through the door in the next minute. You can have a fighter, or an impeding MI or anything. And you have to be able to know when they are giving you a story or if they are really in trouble. The good thing is most of the time you are not usually alone when you work with your clients and just keep your boundaries up, even more than you do workihg in any other form of nursing. A polygraph test??? I didn't have to do that, we just had to have a physical to make sure that we were healthy enough in the job. We didn't even have to take a urine test for drugs which I though was interesting. I hope that you join the ranks of corrections nursing and you enjoy it as much as I have. Sonya

Our state treats latent TB...when they have a positive TB test we question them of contact with active cases, if they have any syptoms and if they have any medical issues. Most of our patients are at high risk to be exposed and we lhave a protocol to treat them. We do a chest xray and do lab work and if there is no contraindications then we start them on 6 months treatment. Sonya

I am in Oregon and we have physician hours depending on the amount of patients that each faciity has. Our smaller facilities have doctors for 4-5 hours one or two days a week. The larger facilities have providers for 8 hours 5 days a week. We have one physician on call every day and we have ambulance response within 5 minutes. If you see something that you know has to go to the hospital when the doctors are not there, you send them and call the doctor later in our faciity. Our correctional staff are certified in CPR and usually they are doing that while we get the IV started, O2 masks on the patient and applying the AED machine to the patient. We use to not hire new grads to work in the facilities but it is getting harder and harder to find nurses to work with us that we are starting to hire them, but we put them with a mentor for a longer period of time. Sonya

In Oregon they move you up the scale according to your experience. It doesn't have anything to do with the union it just has to do with the fact that right now we aren't paying very well and it is the only way to get nurses to come to work for them.. We don't give new nurses a pay raise but experienced nurses do get paid better. The only thing about that is you get to the top of the pay scale faster than the other way. But if you have your union fighting well for you, you can increase the top scale of the pay. I am on the bargaining team for our union and this is the second time that I have been. I fight very hard for our wages and this year I am also going to fight for the state to pay retirees health benefits...will let you know how that goes as the bargaining continues. Sonya

I can remember when this MRSA stuff started and all the inmates were telling us that they got bitten by a spider and it went from there. Well that was many years ago and it is still running rampant in the facilites. We don't always put them on antibiotics unless they get really large and it is after the culture comes back and shows us what it is resistant to. Sometimes we have to use Rochepin but most of the time we are using Doxy. A few years ago we contacted the Convetex company and they came in and did a great demonstration of their dressing supplies and we have been using them with good success. At the beginning we sometimes dress the wounds twice a day when there is a lot of drainage. We have them shower with Hibiclens daily and when they are draining we restrict them from work and activities. We have had quite a bit of success with this although there are some people that you won't be able to get totally clear since their hygiene isn't the best. We have had some of those lesions in the worst places but I really feel sorry for the guys who have the cellmate that have one of these and doesn't do good washing and the other guy ends up with them. Sonya

NurseBean73, I can remember about 24 years ago a girl that I worked with at the hospital left and went to corrections and I thought that she had lost her mind. To leave a great job in the hospital and to take care of INMATES!!!!!:no: I thought that I could never do that....Well a few years later and I found out how much the hospital appreciated me and I went out to the prison and I will never regret my decision. I have learned to appreciate the job and taking care of inmates. I have found that the doctors where I work have much more respect for me than they do for nurses in the hospital. We are the eyes and ears for them 16 hours of the day and they learn to rely on us a lot. The autonomy is great. Today something happened that just showed that to me again. We had an inmate come up as an emergency and he is a Chinese man so I know they can be pretty stoic sometimes. Well he came up and had all the classic signs of a kidney stone. I went to the doctors, told them what was going on and the clinical picture and they told me to send him out even without checking him himself. Well he went to the hospital and was admitted as he has a huge stone and they are going to have to surgically remove it. I think we atone our assesment skills quite a bit because we don't always have a doctor around and we have to be able to know when someone needs more care than we can give and to send to the hospital. I really think that we are just as much a nurse as anyone else and you should be proud to join the ranks. Sonya

It depends on where you live. Oregon is always looking for RN's and LPN's, not only because of the nursing shortage but because we keep building more and more prisons and it isn't going to stop. We have a good retirement program, right now the money isn't good but I am on the bargaining team and we are going to work hard to try to get more money for the nurses. If you are interested into going to God's country just google Oregon Department of Corrections and there is a place to look for jobs, but I know there isn't a prison in the state that isn't looking for nurses right now. We have one opening right now and there are other facilities that have many more holes in the amount of nurses that they need. I have been a correctional nurse for 19 years and I wouldn't trade my job for anything in the world and getting close to retiring now. Sonya:paw::paw:

Woolfpak, I have been in corrections for 19 years and have never had malpractice insurance. I had it when I worked in the hospital and wasn't sure about how well my bosses would cover me in a lawsuit. Well I let it lapse when I started to work corrections. I don't know how it is in California but if an inmate tries to sue you, your lawyer is the attorney general and they will defend you unless you have done something blatent and no insurance company will cover you if you do something really wrong. I think that if you have malpractice insurance, it would just make you more of a target by your clients...I just don't think it is necessary in our area to keep malpractice insurance. I was sued once and it was all taken care of and I never even went to court. Sonya:yeah:

Actually the name of the book is "Games Criminals Play" and it is on Amazon and it is a book most people in corrections should read. It will give you a basic knowledge of the games that inmates will play with you and they are good at it. I read it every once in a while to keep up. It is a great investment in your career.

I have been a correctional nurse for 19 years and believe me, there have been many times that I have been second-guessed by the officers and if they keep on me I always say, "you can't afford to keep me in the way I am use to living if you don't send this guy out and he dies.":D:D Most of the time they don't give me any trouble because they know me now and they realize that I know most of the time that I know what I am talking about :chuckle. Many times I have sent an inmate out and I haven't even called the doctor and he agreed with me in the morning. One time many years ago I had an inmate that I just had one of those feelings, you know those nurse feelings. Well I called the doctor and told him that I really didn't know why I wanted to send him to the hospital, I just didn't feel right and his pain was getting worse. We sent him out and the next day I got to work and the doctor told me that he liked my "nurse feelings," cause the inmate had ruptured his gallbladder and it had encapsulated. If I hadn't sent him to the hospital it could have ruptured again and he could have died that time. Of course the officers didn't like that one either because he had been sitting in the infirmary for 12 hours and then all of a sudden he needed to go. But when they admitted him, the officers didn't hold anything against me. Sonya

There is a wonderful book called "Games Inmate Play" not sure of the author but it is a MUST for anyone that starts in corrections not just nurses. I am sure that you can go to barnes and noble or amazon and pick it up. Also most prisons in Oregon have copies of this book somewhere in the facility that you can borrow from. I have read it several times and it is something that we need to remember. Just remember your boundaries with these inmates and you will be fine. Sonya

Please let us know what happens with your interview, it will make a great change in your life I am sure. Sonya:yeah::loveya:

Sounds like you hit the nail on the head on your interview. They don't really expect you to know a scenerio would go in a prison, it is a lot different than regular nursing. I mean when you get a patient ready to go to the hospital, they just can't pick them up and haul them out unless it is a extreme emergency. They have to be checked before they go out whether they are having chest pain or not....sometimes that makes it a little intense and you want to get them out but we have to keep the officers and community safe. When we are looking for new nurses it really doesn't matter where you have worked before, all types of nursing is needed in corrections. We do a lot of psych nursing and many places have diaylsis units. You never know what is going to walk through your fron door and when they call you for a man-down you never know what you are going to find at the other end. All types of nursing is needed and you will learn the rest when you are there. I can remember when I started I didn't like working with the psych patients but I have gotten pretty good at it in 19 years. I love my job and I love going to work every day.:D:)

I have a feeling that I am going to be pleasantly confused because I already am part of the time.....now what was I doing before I sat down at the computer???? Oh yeah cleaning....ugh- ugh- ugh!!!!! I don't know if I want to go to a LTC....please....let me stay at home and go out sleeping..... Sonya

I have worked for the Oregon Department of Corrections where we are also having a building burst but the powers that be don't want to pay the nurses very much. I have been helping with the bargaining for our new contract and it has been a big fight to try and get more money for the nurses. The only thing that is helping me right now is the fact that I have worked there for 18 years and I still have a great retirement coming up... In fact in three years I am going to retire and only work part time....and I don't even know if it is going to be in nursing but I think that I could be a good consultant to some correctional facilities due to my experience. Anyway we are having a hard time getting applicants in fact there is no one on the list for a RN job right now. We have resorted to using agency nurses and that makes it really hard to swallow....knowing that they are making more money than I and there is many things that they aren't able to do in the facility. I am sure that the panel interview was tough, I didn't have any trouble getting my first job in the facility. My boss knew me from the outside and we were expanding at the facility and she kind of pushed me through the process. The nurses that start with us now are iterviewed by the Health Services Manager and Nurse Manager and usually someone outside the Medical unit....I am glad that I didn't have to go through all that. I agree, you need to get ahold of the powers that be and tell them that you were intimidated by the interview process but you will be ready for it this time and would like another interview. Good luck with your attempts and you will never regret going to work for the state.... Sonya

I too am appalled at the idea of Correctional nurses cant work anywhere else, well I believe in the "walk a mile in my shoes.' I have worked in hospitals but I wouldn't down grade nurses who work in a hospital. I have been a correctional nurse for 18 years and I have been certified as a CCHP for 6 years and I am proud of my affliation with the organization. But that isn't the only reason that I am responding to this thread. Are you considered management?? Do you have a union where you work? You are not only in a hostile work environment but her talking about what she does on her time off and her body is not appropriate. If you do belong to a union, get to know the shop steward or your union representatives because that is blatantly against the union rules. If you have any questions, please PM me and I would be glad to answer your questions. I am sorry that your orientation into correctional nursing was such a bummer. There might be many reasons that they wanted to hire someone else for the boss...and you need to let her know that you are her boss.

Since it is probably a control issue you may do what we do for inmate compliance on some psych meds. When they are first put on may keep on person, we call them in at several different times of the day and week to check to see if they are taking thier medications. If they continue to not take take them properly, we put them back on the medication cart and she needs to sign a refusal of care paper saying that the department isn't going to be held repsonsible for her not taking her medications. Sonya

I have been a correctional nurse for 18 years and I have throughly enjoyed my job until the last 8-10 months. We have lost a few nurses to retirement, sickness and just bosses stupidity. We are down 8 nurses and they have put us on 12 hour shifts and not only 12 hour shifts but sometimes 16 and they call you all the time on your days off to see if you could come in. I am so exhausted that I ended up with a sinus infection and I have felt horrible. Don't get me wrong, most of the time I really like my job, the automony of it the job for me. The doctors respect you more and you don't have to worry about the office politics as much as in a regular hospital. I have recomended correctional nursing to some nurses that I have worked with or people that have taken care of me when I was in the hospital and they thanked me for recomending the job to them...Its just how you feel about your job and how you react to your clients...it always makes a difference. Sonya Oregon Department of Corrections