Published Apr 29, 2015
payitforward
111 Posts
Great day all! I recently took a job in corrections. I must say the first few days it was quite intimidating for me, but I got it. My question is, is it the norm for ONE nurse to pass ALL the medications for the ENTIRE jail??(over 200 inmates). The med pass takes the WHOLE shift!!! One nurse for that many folk seems very dangerous to me, and I didn't like the fact that the other nurses thought it was the norm! They say that they have complained but nothing gets done. The company can't seem to keep any nurses because of the load, between meds and intake. Any thoughts anyone?
traumaRUs, MSN, APRN
88 Articles; 21,268 Posts
Moved to Correctional Nursing.
OrganizedChaos, LVN
1 Article; 6,883 Posts
I have never heard of that. When I worked at the county jail there were two nurses passing meds (2-4 nurses all together). Med pass took up a good portion of the shift but it didn't take the whole shift. Once you knew where the meds where in the cart & everything it went pretty fast.
How many nurses work at the facility all together?
They have the LPNs and CMAs pass meds. The LPNs also do intake. and stay on the floor and do finger sticks,( not many) run sick call, and of course the paperwork. My issue is that when I came on board they really weren't forthcoming about the job. If I knew I would be doing a med pass for over 200 people ALONE, I would never have accepted the position. The LPNs and CMAs that are there think that is the norm, but I don't.
Well if you aren't happy with the job, then leave. When I worked at the county jail, I passed meds & it took up most of my shift which was 8 hours. There they didn't have CMAs, only RNs & LVNs. But anywhere else I worked in corrections they had CMAs, so they nurses did everything else. I couldn't tell you how long pill pass took in those cases because I only did it at the county jail.
NGYSUN, BSN, MSN, RN
180 Posts
I have worked at a high security prison with over two thousand inmates.... I mean we had Alooooot.... med pass was indeed the longest chore of the shift... from say 12Mn to 5:30am... and we were only 3 nurses with our charge covering the insulin sections... it was sooo tough .. I had to leave.
Orca, ADN, ASN, RN
2,066 Posts
I worked the night shift at a medium security men's prison in a western state. Night pill call consisted of roughly 350 inmates spread over a yard that was literally a half mile from one end to the other, and all of the meds were passed in the quads (16 of them altogether). I was it for pill call.