Serving at a Correctional Facility

Serving at a Correctional Facility As per the records from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, around 2.3 million people are imprisoned in U.S. jails and prisons.

This population often comes with complex and diverse healthcare needs, like acute injuries, chronic conditions, and even palliative care. Therefore, providing nursing care to patients in this setting is not easy.

1. A Vast and Autonomous Practice Correctional nurses have the potential of making a big difference in the lives of their patients.

That is because nurses are the first person to provide health care practices.

Nurses make the assessment of the patient and further decide on what treatment must be given to the patient. They also make a call on if the patient is required to go to the hospital or need certain specialist to avail the best treatment.

2. Unique Patient Population Big prisons may have a large team of doctors, dentists, and nurses. A jail may have a singular nurse on duty. However, the size of the facility doesn't matter, as there is a huge difference between correctional nursing and other nursing specialties. The difference between the two regards security.

Keeping security in mind, nurses are informed to stay aware of their interactions with their patients. For example, something as easy as giving sympathy to a seriously ill patient has to be done in a thoughtful yet deliberate manner.

3. Generalists Wanted In correctional nursing, nurses have to deal with numerous acute injuries and chronic diseases.

A nurse would have to face diseases from TB to broken bones, and sometimes have to deal with unstable mental states as well.

For having a broad nursing knowledge base, correctional nurses also need flexibility and the ability to properly prioritize. Nurses who stick to their planned schedule cannot perform well in a correctional facility. In such cases, nurses with an emergency background are considered to be ideal for this environment.

4. The Challenges: The professional challenge associated with correctional nursing is maintaining a curative mindset. It is quite challenging for the nurses to stay focused at; they are the healthcare providers who provide health care services to patients that are in need; without thinking who they are and what they did.

The other challenge that is being faced by the most of the nurses is staying realistic and objective about the patient population.

5. The rewards: Despite the vulnerable challenges that correctional nurses face, at the end of the day she goes back to her home and gets an inner satisfaction that she has served the most vulnerable ill patients.

By profession, a nurse is aware of all of her duties and ready to work for the needy--no matter who they are.

Correctional nurses, what made you want to be in the field? What advice would you offer to those who are interested?

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