RN in correctional facilities any feedbacks

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Hello! I am just accepted in a correctional facility here in California and I'm kinda scared because I will be directly in contact with notorious criminals on death row and I would just like to know any feedbacks. Orientation have not yet started but would like to know first hand of any of your experience. thanks in advance!

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why did you pick a field like that?

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
why did you pick a field like that?
Why not?
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:yeahthat:

Why not?
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hey there,

I have been working in a state prison since December, 2005, and love working with the inmates. I felt pretty intimidated my first couple of weeks and since it's an all male facility sometimes wished I could be invisible walking down the halls. After a few months I realized for whatever strange reason I felt at home there and have never felt threatened in anyway by an inmate. The hard part of the job for me has been other staff. I have found it to be the biggest Peyton place I've ever worked at and been told that everything is a matter of "perception". If someone "perceives" me as being too friendly (...I talked to an inmate in the hallway) I've been told it can launch a whole investigation. At my facility, all of these men will be released back into society. My philosophy is that I would like to have a positive effect in hopes that it will somehow resonate and help them to be better people when they get out then when they came in. I have become painfully aware that we live in a throw away society and that we throw people away as easy as we do our garbage. No one helped alot of these people when they were kids and not many people give a___about them as adults. My experience has been positive as far as the inmates go. MY facility though only houses minimum and medium prisoners. I would suggest doing some research on prisons in our country and on organizations that oppose the use of the prison system as it stands today. Most of the staff even in medical look at these guys as just "inmates". They all lie, you can't trust anything they say, one nurse even said he thinks "their all scum". It's certainly been an eye opener for me. Recently I have felt the need to quite because of the general attitude of staff not just towards the inmates but towards me because I don't fit into their box. Hope some of this helps.

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As long as you're not in a psych facility, an ER or a juvenile facility, you're statistically safer in a prison. Nurses are attacked in those facilities a lot more than a prison. For one thing, you're usually with a correctional officer the whole time.

It's one of those situations were the perception doesn't match the reality. People think prison is more dangerous but, actually, it's not. You're actually in more danger in an ER.

:typing

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It's one of those situations were the perception doesn't match the reality. People think prison is more dangerous but, actually, it's not. You're actually in more danger in an ER.

:typing

:yeahthat:

THANK YOU LIZZ!

I stated this is one of my posts on correctional nursing regarding the ER being just as, if not more, dangerous than any correctional nursing job. :smackingf:

Yes, there are precautions you most definitely need to follow, but if you are alert and aware of your environment (something I recommend in ALL areas of nursing) then you should be fine.

I have first hand experience of the "dangers" that exist in an ER, dangers in correctional nursing, heard numerous stories, from other areas of nursing, about being "shot at" when making a home visit, attacks on med surg floors, with NO security in sight, ect.

I hate to see nurses get what I refer to as the "jail house mentality" b/c they essentially become ineffective. If you don't see these men/woman as human beings, in need of medical care, then you really are doing them, yourself and the nursing profession a disservice. JMHO.

***This post is not directed toward any person or group. :twocents:

[banana]GOOD LUCK![/banana]

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Specializes in Corrections, Cardiac, Hospice.

I worked at a county jail for over a year and feel like I was much safer there than on my units. The reason is this, most of the inmates are sober, I was always watched on a monitor by 2 deputies and had at least one in arms length when with an inmate. On the floor, I have been threatened by a granddaughter when an aide didn't get her grandfather a bed pan quick enought (it was change of shift, I had just come out of report and was the first one she saw.) I was almost attacked by an irate drunk girlfriend, because her boyfriend was discharged and she had leave the bar AND find a sober driver to take him home. I have been called every name in the book by patients and a couple DOCTORS. The inmates would never had shown me that kind of disrespect.

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The other nite at the LTC facility where I work, a demented old guy tried to strangle the nurse with the lanyard she had around her neck with the keys on it - now we're not allowed to wear them on our neck anymore.:uhoh3:

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The other nite at the LTC facility where I work, a demented old guy tried to strangle the nurse with the lanyard she had around her neck with the keys on it - now we're not allowed to wear them on our neck anymore.:uhoh3:

At the correctional facilities I have worked at, lanyards could be worn if they were velcro or some other type of "break away". I have always disagreed with this as it can still be used to strangle someone even if it "breaks away".

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Specializes in ICU, psych, corrections.

I agree that you are safer in a prison than most other areas of nursing....LOL. 3 months ago, I was socked in the eye by an 89 year old granny whose daughter had taken off her restraints, unbeknownst to me. I put some ice on my eye, tied up granny again, and then was punched in the stomach by granny after the daughter had untied her again! Sigh. I ended up with a black eye and a scratched cornea from my contact lens. Then, about a month ago, I had my hand almost broken by an 82 year old grandpa. It took 4 people to peel his hand off of mine. I was out of work for over a week and my hand still bothers me slightly (I have rheumatoid arthritis and the injury caused a major flare).

My husband is a correctional officer at a prison facility near our home. He's been trying to convince me to check it out as an employment opportunity for some time. I will say it's tmepting. I would make approximately the same as I do with hospital nursing, but be working 8-4pm (nice since we have young kids) and have a pension! Hmmm. I'm not interested at the moment, but it definitely has it's possibilites later in my career. Especially the physical aspect of it. With RA, I know I will not be able to do bedside nursing forever, especially in the ICU. So I keep Correctional nursing in the back of my mind. I have yet to talk to a Correctional nurse who doesn't LOVE her job and has no plans of leaving their position.

Melanie = )

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Here are some books that are helpful to read before you start work:

Games Criminals Play

How You Can Profit By Knowing Them

by Bud Allen and Diana Bosta

The Sociopath Next Door

by Martha Stout

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