Jail Nurses are the best and you cannot convince me otherwise.
• At intake, our nurses deal with patients that are having, at the very least, a very bad day.
• Quite often these patients are under the effect of drugs and/or alcohol making intakes difficult if not impossible.
• Our nurses have to deal with a very transient population, nurses that work in prisons can never compare.
• Our nurses are very often the first medical provider these patients have seen in years or even decades.
• Our nurses have to try to decipher a medical history for their patients which is quite difficult when the patient makes no effort to take care of themselves outside of jail.
• Our nurses have to verify medications that the patients need, all while the patients are non-compliant with their medication outside of the jail.
• Our nurses have to work with patients with tremendous mental health needs, especially considering the community mental health resources lack so severely.
• Our nurses often have to respond to serious medical emergencies without the ability to call for doctors, specialists or huge teams of medical professionals.
• Our nurses have to manage a work load that would challenge even the busiest of hospitals.
• Our nurses have to balance medication pass, conduct triage, COVID testing, providing vaccinations, check vitals, chart accurately, inventory properly, all while being ready to respond to an emergency at the drop of a dime.
• Our nurses do all of this and they do it at an extremely high level.
• Finally, our nurses are expected to be perfect in every decision made because they choose to work in a jail.
Thank you Tina Atty and Melissa Bramer for accepting the call to serve your community in this way!
Happy National Nurses Week!
Original source can be found here.
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