You asked, we listened. Below is a guest post from one of our gypsies, Marnie Miller, who is a travel nurse that is sharing her experiences as not only a travel nurse but a correctional nurse, in hopes to help answer some questions we’ve seen from other gypsies who may want to make the same career change in the future.
It was time to pursue a new way of nursing. Bad, crappy assignments, are why I now rotate between hospitals and corrections. When I couldn’t take the assignment I was on, and quit my first contract, a friend of mine suggested I try corrections. Best job change yet. It’s like taking a mental and back break. Never thought about working in a prison before. Or that it was even a job in nursing. All I knew was about working in a hospital, nursing home or doctors office. Little nervous at first. But that feeling didn’t last long.
Once you walk behind those gates, it’s just like any other job. Working to help your ‘patient’. Except these patients are not free to leave AMA. Typical day usually includes medication administration, vitals, sick calls, BS.., glucose checks, MD visits, inmate faking a seizure, fight that nobody saw, paperwork, intake of new people, lab draw, making rounds in segregated area, avoiding looking at what an inmate is trying to ‘flash‘ at you and listening to ‘why I need a medication, that I had before I got here that I have no record of taking’. Correctional facilities. Jails. Detention centers. Prisons. All house people, who also need medical care and treatments. No matter what crime they may have or may have not committed.
We nurses and other medical professionals, walk in and work, just like we do at hospitals and other medical facilities. Just have to be mindful that we have to be a little more cautious, where safety is concerned, don’t fall for some con games, and be consistent. Then go home.
Do you have different tips or POV you want to share with us on travel nursing in a correctional facility that you’d like to share? Comment below or email us at content@thegypsynurse.com!
