What is a Corrections Nurse?

With National Nurses Week just around the corner, often time the most valuable people in nursing get missed, Corrections Nurses.  Have you ever heard a negative comment about your job from a fellow nurse?  Their misconceptions include:  "all you work with convicts" or "all you do is pass pills"  Not, true, a corrections nurse is a dynamic nurse leader.  She functions independently within her scope of practices.  She jumps in with both feet grounded.  She is a multi-tasker.. She cannot be defined by only one definition.  Corrections nurses understand fast paced critical care at the spur of the moment.  On a day to day basis corrections nurses are: responding to medical emergencies, passing pills, performing treatments, assessing clients in medical observation, drawing labs, performing IV therapy, completing sick call, assisting the MD, completing CQI, assisting with daily Chronic Clinic, and completing intakes not with 6-8 patients like Med-Surg or 1-2 patients in ICU but with 500-600 clients daily.  Thanks for your dedication, endurance, dedication, committment and work ethic.  You often go un-noticed so today I salute "Corrections Nurses" everywhere.