Why do you do it?

I was a new Psych NP and it was the first job I found. I thought, even though the pay was terrible at first, the experience will be invaluable. And it was. 13 years later I left (retired) for another position with a private company at twice the money.

Yes, it was interesting, and yes, I got to help people. You will learn lessons that will stay permanently with you.

If you can do this work, you will soon carry a confidence that will spill over into the rest of your life.

Don't get over involved with patients, always maintain boundaries, and see what there is to learn.

I've worked in both a jail and a prison and I will never go back. I actually loved the actual job or helping people and the patients were usually kind and I felt safer there then working in acute psych. I've always liked helping people that general society doesn't seem to care about or sweep under rug. The problem was the severe purposeful understaffing in both places. Both paid the fines for low staffing instead of hiring even though we had people applying. Both had shady practices but asked the moon from the staff and it was impossible to deliver. At the jail, the staff were treated so terribly by management that we all quit at once, including the providers, and they lost their contract. The private contracted correctional medical care companies are destroying the specialty. Just look at the employee reviews for these companies.

As for just regular understaffing as in no one applying, the cause for us was the long and arduous process of actually getting hired. At both places it could take up to 3 months to get hired. When people are looking for jobs, they don't have 3 months to wait for approval. It can also be very intimidating. For instance, at the jail I had to be interviewed for 2 hours by 2 detectives and fill our a 15 page application.

My other friend had to be put through a lie detector test and if they found you lied about something they warned you that you could be prosecuted. Because we all know lie detectors tests are 100% accurate.

Frankly, it's just not worth the low pay, stress, lack of respect from management, and the lack of good benefits.

I don't regret taking these jobs though because holy cow, you learn a lot, and the confidence I gained to be a independent nurse (because I had to) was invaluable. Also my "bullcrap" meter is tried and true now.

HeHeHe I like that you have a bull crap meter that got a work out, I think mine wore out towards the end when I decided to leave corrections.

I truly enjoy what I am doing now and have a life. I do miss corrections and the nursing services I provided to those offenders. My pay was always good, benefits were great. Management lack of respect happens not only in corrections but the civilian side as well. Mean people suck. But truly the experience you get if you apply yourself in Corrections, you will carry it with you everywhere you go.

I took a corrections job because I had less than 1 year acute care experience and could not get hired in the hospital. But I totally love it in jail, although it is: tough, frustrating, and political, our provider relationships are wonderful and every shift I learn more and more. And it has forced me to be very independent.

The ironic thing is that I went into nursing to get out of corrections. I had worked in the correctional field in non-medical capacities for the better part of 20 years. I answered an ad from my current agency for a per diem position hoping to pick up a couple of shifts per month. That was over 17 years ago.

I started working in corrections because I was fresh out of nursing school and at the end of my rope looking for a job. They were begging for people and had a huge sign on bonus. I was amazed that it could be this hard to find a job as a nurse, and took this job out of desperation. Then I started getting excited about it. It offers lots of cool and exciting opportunities for a new nurse - lots of different nursing settings in one job (clinic, ER, meds, psych, educating). It also excited me because before I became a nurse I worked with dementia patients, and the combative residents made my day. I love a challenge, and prided myself at being able to handle the most difficult patients no one else could.

Though I'm having a blast, angeloublue22 is right about management. I work for a private company. It scares me as a new nurse sometimes. They fumble around so much I know they don't have my back. I worry that this behavior makes it very unsafe, being a prison and all. Poor management is bad anywhere, but in this setting? Scary. I wonder if this was the best choice, being a new grad...

Love the autonomy! Prior to prison I worked county jail and had a lot of protocols such as common cold, acne, rash etc...it has risk, with common cold I listen to lungs and look in mouth for s/s throat infection. A TON of horrible teeth from meth mouth and abscesses from skin popping; Bactrim is a popular med! When I worked county jail all my patients had too much time on their hands and heard too many jail rumours that everything they did no take care of on the outside is going to be taken care of on the inside! They think that hernia they have had for 10 years is getting immediate repair...I have to give them the bad news that it will be attended to if it becomes emergent. There is 'shifting the cost', if they plead out and were heading to prison the chronic issues will be taken care of in prison but we had a lot of inmates spending 2-7 years dragging out their trails. If they were charged with homicide, forcible rape et al potential life sentences they all take it to trial where the vast majority lose so we are treating chronic. Deputy was always nearby and right on the spot if someone started to get threatening. I actually felt safer then I ever did in the hospital. One of the bigger challenges was fake vs real seizures; everyone wanted to be in the hospital and seizures seemed to be the favorite. Prison it is easier as the patients are more 'settled in for the long haul.

To answer the original question:

1. Job security. Since I became vested with the state, I cannot be fired on a whim. I have to actually do something wrong, and there is a formal process for dismissal. I can't be let go because someone has decided that I make too much money, or because they simply don't like me.

2. Stability of the employer. I know that we won't be bought out, taken over or shut down. I have worked for private employers where all three of the above have taken place. The facility that was shut down was part of a national chain (for the sake of discussion, let's call it Charter Behavioral Health Systems) that flew people in from the corporate office to lie to us and tell us that we were staying open. The company even sabotaged a potential sale that would have kept us open by insisting that the new owner take responsibility for all pending lawsuits.

3. Job duties. My worst day at the prison is better than being in a hospital. If anything gets very heavy, we send it out. We see enough to keep our skills up, but not so much that we are overwhelmed.

4. A paycheck that I can count on. We never call off for low census or send people home early (without pay) because of discharges.

On ‎1‎/‎18‎/‎2019 at 4:55 AM, traumaRUs said:

I actually wanted to work in corrections (my son is currently incarcerated). That wasn't a stumbling block at all. However, the fact that I volunteer for the states prison watchdog group sure was.

Having worked on the inside for a long time, I fully understand that. While there are some cases of medical neglect in prisons, most of the things that are told to outside groups, families and friends are either exaggerated or completely fabricated. I deal with families every day who have been told a lot of outlandish things. Sometimes there is a grain of truth in what they have been told, sometimes not.

One inmate's mother called, very angry about the expensive medical charges that her son incurred for an outside appointment. We don't charge for outside appointments. The son apparently told his mother that he had been charged for a procedure to get her to put money on his books. We also don't turn away inmates for a lack of funds, yet many tell their families that they aren't seen because they don't have money on the books.

Then there are those who call family and claim that they have turned in multiple requests for medical treatment and their requests have been ignored. Invariably, this seems to be inmates with charts six inches thick documenting their "lack" of medical care. The higher the number of requests that they report to the family, the more likelihood that the actual number is zero (I have found this to be the case many times).

Inmates can be very convincing. People who don't know the inside environment tend to believe what they are told, and they don't bother to ask questions as to how much is true, or even if any of it is. It is quite possible that your prospective employer believed that you might have spent time gathering information for the organization that you volunteer with.