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What Does a Correctional Nurse Do?

Instead of treating patients at hospitals or advising companies about health care, correctional nurses work at correctional facilities (prisons and jails). A typical day involves passing through a metal detector to get to work. Then, before seeing any patients, you have to count narcotics and sharp items such as needles to make sure none are missing. You may also be responsible for giving intake screenings to any new inmates, gathering their medical history, mental health status, and checking vital signs. Additional job duties can include quality improvement reviews, teaching, filing, chronic care clinic visits, and of course treating your patients.

Education & Training Required to Become a Correctional Nurse

Along with the required training to become a nurse (an associate's or bachelor's degree in nursing through a traditional or online degree program), you need the specific training found in correctional nursing degree programs or continuing education courses. This might cover security measures you have to use when practicing health care in correctional facilities, like which items are prohibited on the premises. Inmates also often suffer from diseases not typically found in the general population due to high-risk lifestyles or lack of proper medical care in the past.

You can get voluntary certification through the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, granting you the title Certified Correctional Health Professional credential. This indicates to employers that you have acquired all the necessary skills taught in correctional nursing degree programs.

Typical Characteristics of a Correctional Nurse

Working with criminals can sometimes take nerves of steel, since correctional nurses might be called upon to treat murderers, rapists, and possibly death row inmates. You have to be able to overlook all that and treat your patients just like you would any patient at a hospital or doctor's office. Can you think of your patients not as criminals but as people in need of medical attention? Then this is the job for you.

High Demand for Correctional Nurses

In correctional facilities, nurses make most of the medical decisions, not physicians. This creates a high demand for qualified candidates who have completed the required traditional or online degree programs in correctional nursing. Salaries for nurses in correctional facilities may be higher than in clinical environments to compensate for the potential danger, but vary depending on region, prison size, and experience.