Pursue corrections right out of college or acute care first?

LilRedRN1973 · Jan 4, 2015

Here is what I answered in your other post under General Discussion:

I am a nursing supervisor in the prison infirmary in my state. The RN I supervise is a new grad (well, she just celebrated her first year but she was here upon graduating school as was another RN on days). I will say that working in the infirmary, it's important to have good assessment skills and be able to make timely decisions as you are granted quite a bit of autonomy. The way it works with our facilities within the state system is that a new grad is considered an RN I in the prison. I believe the pay is $67,692.96 There are steps within the state system and in the prison, you start out at the top of the step scale. After one year, you then become a Correctional Nurse I, which pays $74,082.24. One year later, you are autopromoted to Correctional Nurse II, which pays $81,139.68. The retirement is very good within the state system and our benefits, while not the best, are still just as good as I was offered within the hospital setting. I started out as a Psychiatric RN I with the state then autopromoted to a PN II after a year. Spent 4 years working in outpatient clinic, making about $62k a year. When this position opened up and I saw that I qualified, I put in for a transfer and was offered the position. My pay is just under $90k a year and to be honest, working in the prison is a wonderfully kept secret. I enjoy my job just as much as I did in the ICU or the outpatient clinic but I am making a lot more money and don't go home all beat up like I did when in the ICU. Having to deal with prison politics is the reason for the high pay :-)

mikethemurse, BSN, RN · Jan 4, 2015

First of all thank you for your interest in our specialty! Personally because of what Lilred said about the good assessment skills, and also the autonomy, I think that it is a good idea to get some acute care under your belt. In my state, they pay by experience. A new grad makes about as much as a med surg nurse does. for the state gigs there is a scale and where you fall on the scale is directly related to # of yrs, experience. I think it is something like 25-36 per/hr. then there are shift diffs and overtime. I love corrrections, as you may have read in some of my other posts. All that being said, in this market take the best paying job! You will learn a lot your first yr, but may be a bit overwhelmed in corrections as a new grad.

Y-chromosome · Jan 19, 2015

Is it hard to get into Correctional Nursing? I have thought about this or Adolescent/Pediatric Nursing upon graduating.