Jackie Perry

10/29
Prison Nurse Career
Career Paper

Prison Nurse Career

The nature of this career is about providing health care to “people who are

incarcerated in the criminal justice system”( Correctional, 2018). The environment of this

career has the possibility of being in many different settings such as jails, prisons, and

juvenile detention centers. This career falls under the cluster of Therapeutic. The is

because prison nurses are just regular nurses but they work in prisons, jails, or juvenile

detention centers.

Some skills or requirements and duties for this job is in general are normal nurse

skills. A person will need to know how to draw blood, be the first care provider for

prisoners, arrange the prisoners to see a physician if needed, the ability to treat each

person with respect like you would anyone else, help prisoners physically and mentally,

and give medication. The one thing that may be different is the need of knowledge

about self defence incase a prisoner gets out of hand. Officers are always near so

professionals won't get seriously hurt if anything were to happen.

Some skills I possess for this position is nothing in particular but I can learn to

achieve them. To get some of these skills I would need to know how to do the things

nurses do and also not stereotyping and treating people unequally because of prior

watched television shows of prisons. I will need to work on staying calm and being able

to think clearly. This will be achieved through practice and being in the prison
environment more if I chose to pursue this career. To conclude I would have to be

taught some self defence that is required for working with the patients.

The education that is required for this career is a Bachelor’s but recently there

has been acceptances of an Associate's degree or ADN nurse. A person does not need

to have prior work experience in a prison or jail. There will be required training in the

different shifts and how to work in each of them. Even though working in one of the

shifts is not what a person may have hired in for being on call 24/7 is and a person may

be pulled in for an emergency purpose. There are three shifts. Morning, afternoon and

night. The amount of time to be fully trained in all of the required fields is about 6

months, but it can vary from person to person.

Colleges in Michigan that offer the career of a prison nurse is University of

Michigan Ann-Arbor (According to www.prepscholar.com to get into this college a

person would need an average GPA of a 3.8, also it helps if a person takes AP classes,

and a person will need at least a SAT score of 1400 or ACT of 31), Michigan State

University, University of Detroit Mercy, Madonna University, ect. The amount of time

spent at these colleges would be four years but also there is the possibility to find a

community college and only go for two years and still have the possibility of being able

to get into this career.

According to www.indeed.com ,the yearly earnings of a prison nurse is

approximately sixty four thousand dollars. This can vary depending on how many

promotions someone may obtain, how much overtime a person does, if a person works

holidays or not, if a person has more education behind their belt, and the amount of
experience they have. The outlook on this job is always in a need of people and it is

pretty easy to get into.

The typical day of this career would be a variety of things. A person will need to

know a lot and specializing isn't an option. A person has their scheduled people each

day, which is around twelve for an average sized prison, but is subject to change if it is

a larger facility or a smaller one. Also if there are emergencies that are needed to be

taken care of (Study, 2018).

How I feel about the work hours of this job is not so bad. It seems less comparing

to another nurse not working in prison facilities. I do not think this would fit into my

lifestyle, personally because I do not want to be a nurse. The schooling for this job is not

very long. It seems to be on the lower side of the spectrum of having to go to school in

the medical field, which is good. This job doesn’t seem to fit my personality though. I am

more of an introvert and for this career you need to be in command and not have the

ability to be pushed around. So, in result, a person would have to be more of an

extrovert. Handling blood and wounds are not a problem for me as long as they are

going to be taken care of and properly cleaned and bandaged. The outlook with this

career in Michigan is pretty good actually. There is many opportunities and many places

of employment. Additionally many choices of colleges to go to which means the

opportunity of not paying out of state fees. The salary is decent. Another good thing

about this career that caught my attention is how many benefits come with this job.

There is paid vacations. This includes being paid more than double the amount of what

you would normally an hour if you work on holidays. In my opinion I wouldn’t mind

working holidays all except Christmas. This holiday is pretty special to me and holds
sentimental values. To conclude, I think this career has good opportunities but just isn’t

the career for me.

Works cited
● Correctional Nursing. (n.d.). Retrieved June 11, 2012, from

https://www.forensicnurses.org/page/CorrectionalNursing

● Best Nursing Colleges in Michigan. (n.d.). Retrieved May 22, 2003, from

https://www.universities.com/find/michigan/best/healthcare/nursing

● Wischnitzer, S., & Wischnitzer, E. (2011). Top 100 health-care careers: Your complete

guidebook to training and jobs in allied health, nursing, medicine, and more.

Indianapolis: JIST Works.

● Mason. S. & Baily (2018, October 22). Correctional Nurse.

An explanation on what it takes/is like to be a Correctional Nurse/ Director (speech)

Https://nursejournal.org/, 2. N. (2018, August 03). Correctional Nurse Careers & Salary

Outlook. Retrieved from 7https://nursejournal.org/correctional-nursing/correctional-

nurse-careers-salary-outlook/

● 10 things I wish I knew before becoming a correctional nurse. (2015, February 05).

Retrieved from https://www.correctionsone.com/correctional-

healthcare/articles/8238835-10-things-I-wish-I-knew-before-becoming-a-correctional-

nurse/

● University of Michigan Requirements for Admission. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.prepscholar.com/sat/s/colleges/University-of-Michigan-admission-

requirements

● Salaries. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.indeed.com/salaries/Correctional-Nurse-

Salaries
● Corrections Nurse: Typical Job Duties and Salary Requirements. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://educationcareerarticles.com/career-information/career-news/corrections-nurse-

typical-job-duties-and-salary-requirements/