Episode 8: Correctional Nursing

This transcript was generated automatically. Its accuracy may vary.

Cara Lunsford

Oh, hey, nurses. Welcome to the Nurse podcast. Giving nurses validation, resources and hope. One episode at a time. Oh, Today on Nurse Dot podcast.

Christina Casas

Mentally, it can drain you. The long hours is going to drain you, but like I say, you got to take care of yourself mentally, physically, spiritually. Every kind of way. Take your vitamins, drink water, go to sleep early, and you should be able to deal with everything. Say a prayer in the morning before you come in.

Cara Lunsford

Joining us today, christina cassis, an accomplished lpn and Benicia Scott, a dedicated R.N. from Harris Health. They're here to take us behind the bars and into the unique and challenging world of correctional health. Join us as they shed light on what it takes to thrive in this specialized area of nursing. I'm your host, Kara Lunsford, registered nurse and VP of Community Ed Nurse dot com.

Oh, All right, ladies. All right. So we've got Christina Casas in my pronouncing your last name correctly.

Christina Casas

Yes, Correct.

Cara Lunsford

Awesome. And then we've got Venetia Scott.

Benniesha Scott

Yes, ma'am.

Cara Lunsford

All right. Both from Harris Health.

Benniesha Scott

Yes. Yes.

Cara Lunsford

All right. So today we're going to talk a little bit about correctional nursing. This is actually something that I have a pretty close connection to. My best friend who went into nursing school right after me, went directly into LSD, but then decided after LSD that she was going to go into correctional nursing. So she works up in Reno, Nevada area, and I would hear lots of interesting stories from her.

And yes, yes. So I'm sure there's no shortage of interesting stories that you have.

Christina Casas

Oh, yeah, definitely.

Cara Lunsford

But I'll start first by just introducing both of you. I'll just start with you, Cristina, since you just came on. So just introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about the role that you play and just kind of how long you've been in the health care industry and. And then I'll move over to Benicia.

Christina Casas

Okay. So I'm Christina. I've been in Albion since 2002, and I went into correctional nursing in 2003, which is when I started here at the jail. I did one year of med search. As soon as I came out of school. And I did a, you know, agency here and there, clinics here and there, you know, PR and stuff.

Do you want me to go straight into my how I be came into correctional healthcare? When were.

Cara Lunsford

You born? No, I'm just kidding.

Christina Casas

Well, I'm 50 years old, actually, so I was born in 1973. I'm not ashamed.

Cara Lunsford

You look good. Well, I. I was born in 1979, so not that long after you and I have a 1974 VW bus.

Christina Casas

Oh, wow.

Cara Lunsford

My VW bus is just about the same age. And both of you look amazing, by the way. So you've been in Albion for decades.

Christina Casas

Yes.

Cara Lunsford

And you worked in a variety of different areas. And then eventually, like what took you into correctional?

Christina Casas

Well, it wasn't something that I wanted to do or pursue because when you're new to nursing, you don't really know what's out there. Unless I have somebody who is like, my mom is a nurse, has been for a long time, and she can give me like letters as to pinpoints as to what is out there, what I can do, which is what I'm doing with my daughters.

Now. They want to go into nursing and I'm kind of like leading them and telling them there's so many things and but I didn't have that, so I didn't really know what was out there. And that was just one day I was working at a pediatric clinic. It was just like an agency job. I was there for like a day or two a week.

And then I met another nurse at that clinic that had came to the county to work as PR, and on the weekends I was at her a little extra job gig or whatever. And, you know, every time nurses get together, that's the first thing we talk about any type of extra job or whatever the case is. So we talked about that and she was the one that told me that she was working at the jail on the weekends and she was only doing like 1 to 2 shifts.

And of course, when you work with the agency, it's going to be more money per hour, you know. So that right there was like, oh, wow, you know, you're making that much money. And she gave me the information, go sign up with the agency. And I wasn't really I mean, it's kind of scary because you don't really know, you know, I mean, when they say jail, it's like, oh, well, you already know what a jail is and what it pertains to and what's going on inside pretty much just by the news.

And, you know, bad people go to jail, period. So I was like, okay, I thought about it for a little bit and I said, Well, let me go and apply, because at this time I didn't really have a place to call my house because I was new, I was fairly new and I was trying different things and see what I liked.

That's what I did. I went and signed up and I came to work at the jail. This was back in 2003, and here I am still in the jail.

Cara Lunsford

Wow. But in the better way of being in the jail, like you can come and go, which is great.

Christina Casas

Actually, my my email and also a nurse in jail. I've been having that email for 20 to 20 years. As soon as I started working here at the jail, I came up with that email.

Cara Lunsford

I wonder what people think when they first get that email from you. They're like, she's, does she work in the jail? Right?

Christina Casas

My kids teachers used to always think that I was the mom that was the nurse, but I was in jail. You know, But I used to always, like, email them back and forth. And my kids would always tell me, like, Mom, my teacher thinks you in the jail. You know, they don't really know. So they used to get embarrassed.

Cara Lunsford

Well, it's definitely an icebreaker, isn't it?

Christina Casas

Yes, definitely.

Cara Lunsford

Well, I love that. I love that. So you've been there for a couple of decades. That's amazing. We're going to have so much to talk to you about, Benicia, How about yourself? Tell us a little bit just similar to Christina. What's your background or when and how did you find yourself over here in correctional.

Benniesha Scott

Are ambitious and I got my bachelor's in 2019, and I've been a nurse since 2009. I got into corrections because my dad was in corrections. My whole father's side of the family is a correctional setting, so they are CEOs, as they call correctional officers. So when I spoke to my dad, you know, I did it for a little bit.

I also did a little bit of med search. But I talked to my father and he was like, have you ever thought about personal nursing? And I was like, I don't know. He was like, Well, it's interesting. I was like, okay, I'll give it a try. And so far the agency just like Christina, and to me, it's just been a very interesting process because you do get to provide care for a underprivileged population and you see some of the processes that you would probably never see in the real world, like in the hospital and things like that.

So for me, that's how I got into it. And I've been here since 2000, 2000, 12.

Cara Lunsford

Wow. So almost a little over a little over a decade. I got some decorators in this, you know, in this industry. All right. Well, I'm really grateful to have both of you here, because I think that as we talk about different opportunities and I think Christina said it really well, that you just don't know what's out there. And when we get out of nursing school and I've been a nurse since 2007 and you don't know, you just see yourself in a hospital, that's what most nurses either it's like long term care or they see themselves in an acute care setting.

We don't even oftentimes see ourselves in home health, which is crazy because home health is a huge part of health care, but it's not where we initially think that we're going to go. And to some extent, I think that there is some value in getting your feet wet in some of those areas, like long term care or the acute care setting, because you learn some important skill sets that you can probably then take into an environment that probably requires a very different set of skill sets.

I'm excited to hear more from you about this. Just like in in a correctional institution, there's an element of having to really protect yourself. Yes, there's a huge movement right now about violence in the workplace, and that's just in traditional settings. Violence in the workplace is huge, but for you guys, it could potentially be a daily thing that you have to really consider, not that you're always exposed to it, but that you have to constantly keep it top of mind.

So when people are thinking about coming into correctional, some of the experiences that you've had that you really feel have helped you to become an even better nurse. I'll start with you, Christina. Do you feel like there's distinct things that have happened since becoming a correctional nurse, that you feel like you've honed certain skill sets that in the acute care setting, you would never have to deal with?

Christina Casas

Well, I think working in corrections and now that I'm older and I think I have all these years of experience and I tell that to the new nurses that are orientated with me that I train or whatever when they're first coming into corrections in a jail corrections facility, and in the back of your mind, you have to always think that something bad can happen at any time because sometimes, you know, nurses get hit, nurses this and that and they get PTSD and all this stuff, but you have to understand that this is a place where anything can happen at any time.

It might not, but it can lead to a situation where it can be worse. So I think just personally, the skill sets that I got here is just dealing with difficult people because not everybody is able to deal with difficult people. The people that we tend to or people that don't want to be here, even because it's not a hospital.

You go to a hospital to get better, you feel sick or whatever. Well, these people come here because they committed a crime or they or tickets or nobody is happy coming to jail. Everybody is just so hard to try to care for a patient. And especially right now I'm in intake, which is where they come fresh from the streets.

So they come from the street. To me, I think that is the worst time to get them to try to bring care for them because they don't want it, you know, and they're so hateful, they will curse you out and they don't want any help. But I think that's what has helped me out there in the world that I think I have gained from here, working here, just dealing with difficult people.

When we go somewhere with my kids, you know, there's always somebody difficult out there trying to cause trouble right there in front. Hey, calm down or move over here. You're able to deal with situations like that.

Cara Lunsford

You're a master de-escalator

Christina Casas

Especially after 20 years. Sometimes the patience to try to de-escalate is kind of hard.

Cara Lunsford

Yeah, but I think that, like, what you're saying is really valid. This is a difficult job, is a necessary job. We need people like you and Venecia in these areas of correction and they are really difficult because they have a unique set of challenges to them and you have to really become excellent at your social sociology I think is a fascinating thing to be proficient in when you're a nurse.

Understanding people I think is really fascinating and I think you're really getting to study people in a variety of different situations, but also kind of at their worst and, you know, just nursing in general. We always think that we're having to experience people in their worst moments. It's usually even in the hospital. They don't want to be there.

Right. The idea is that they're going to go home or hopefully.

Christina Casas

They go to the hospital on their own or a family member takes no time, no family member is going to bring them to jail. Here. This is where you go or let me go to jail for you. Yep. Nobody wants to. It's insane. Not actually anybody wants to be in.

Cara Lunsford

Yep. It's just taking that to the next degree of unhappiness.

Christina Casas

Evidently.

Cara Lunsford

So, Benicia, what about for you? How do you feel that this has really honed a certain skill set for you or what kind of skill sets did you feel like you really needed prior to coming into this?

Benniesha Scott

So I think some of the skill sets that you need is the care we care for. Like I said, an underprivileged population and I work in the mental health unit, which means that I have a lot of patients who are mentally unstable. So whenever I'm here having to take a patient from whatever unit I've gotten them from could be from an asset off the street.

They're often unmedicated and they often don't even know that they're unmedicated because they are considered inmates, patients, psych patients. So we have to get them to their actual baseline of normal. For them, they're normal. So we have to individualize our care with the providers and with the nursing staff to make sure that we get our patients to the optimal level of their normal and to see them thrive after that is something that I love, that I love seeing that.

And it's it's just a different atmosphere when you have a patient who is medicated correctly and to be able to do their ideals and everything like that and they can speak to you, talk to you, and just function on a normal day to day basis.

Cara Lunsford

A long time ago, my psych instructor in nursing school, you know, she said, It's all psych. And I agree. Yes, I agree with that. I think all of nursing, all of patient care in general is psych.

Benniesha Scott

That's where it starts.

Cara Lunsford

It all really does. And how much I'm really curious from both of you, your opinion on this is how much do you think mental health plays a role into people even landing in jail in the first place? So even when you think outside of like there's the people that we see that we clearly we know that they have mental health issues.

They're on the street, they're talking to themselves. There's somebody in their head. We can clearly see that they are having psychological issues. Right. But then I think that there's the less obvious. I think that there's like the people who maybe had mental health issues, maybe they had anxiety, maybe they had depression, maybe they started self-medicating with drugs because they had these varying levels of anxiety and depression.

And then the drug use escalated into crime. And, you know. And how much of that do you feel? You see.

Benniesha Scott

I can speak on that. I've been educating a lot of my friends and family to the drug induced psychosis, because I do believe that it's real with the new onset of all the drugs that are coming out, invented or created, that it has a very big toll on mental health because it does alter so many things in the human brain when we're talking about mental health starting early, like it can start with a child not being able to be told, Nope.

And it just gets worse and worse and worse as they get older that they're not used to being told no, and they're always used to having their way. There's a lot of little things.

Cara Lunsford

Yeah. Sometimes I wonder how much less we would see of people, you know, ending up in jail if we were treating mental health earlier in life.

Christina Casas

Can I put my course in that, too?

Cara Lunsford

Yes, of course you can.

Christina Casas

Yeah, it is. It's it's out there. But I think some of these people that come to jail use that as an excuse. And I've heard it many times before where they come in for like sexual assault, robbery or whatever it is. Oh, well, I'm mental health. That's why I did it, you know, And I'm not even asking them anything that has to do with that.

But they're exposing themselves with that because they already have an excuse for what they did. So there are people that are very sick, mentally ill and stuff, but when they come in, when they start saying these things or whatever, those are the people that it's hard for me to believe that, okay, yeah, you, you know, you have mental health issues, but they use that as an excuse, you know, So you can pretty much tell that they're using the mental health as an excuse to go and do some crazy stuff.

It's kind of like impossible to have everybody medicated because there's so much homelessness. They'd rather do drugs and buy beer and liquor and getting their medication because I think the drugs and everything else makes them feel better or something. I don't know. It's something that it's like a war that is never going to be one. That's the way I see it, because it's just hard.

Everybody, we get them here and I see the difference once they come in all tired and they need their medicines, they go in and the bad ones go into the mental health inpatient unit and then you see them later on out in the general population session. And you know, with their hair comb, you could just see the total difference, you know, and then they go home.

W And then they come back six months later. The same. So it's just like a vicious, vicious cycle. Is you saying, well, why weren't you on your meds at all? Because I, you know, and they'll tell you I didn't have any money and I was using drugs and this and that. So it's just like a vicious, vicious cycle unless you have a family member that you really care about.

And but even at that, I think it would be hard to try to keep up with somebody very aggressive and wants to kill you. You know, they have the mental health issues going on at that time. I just have one this morning. The lady had two. The family members called because she was trying to kill everybody at the house.

And so they took her to the hospital, emergency medicines. And then when we got her, she was just sitting there looking normal because, you know, medication was forced and it helped her. But I can't imagine myself having a family member living in my house, being that aggressive. I don't know if I would even want to go through it.

Benniesha Scott

It's just a very hard situation overall for everybody. I like I said, I think community health plays a very big role in that, too. Community health and nursing and our caseworkers, social workers that are out, I know that it's hard to deal with patients when they're not getting treatment, but it also relies a lot on the family like the support system in the community.

So community health nursing is very big. It is a different atmosphere Once you get the patient that's already almost to the point where they can't be medicated without the extreme. We do see that a lot. But as you said, once they get medicated, yeah, they're good person. You know, some actually come here but we've had patients who have told us that they felt like they were going to overdose.

Are they going to kill themselves so that they come to the jail setting because they know they're going to get their meds, they know they're going to be kept alive because they felt like they were almost to the end. They don't have dialysis. You know, they need to get out, get to these appointments, get food in their bodies because they know if they're out on their own, they're not going to do it.

So they actually do something to the smallest thing like trespassing to get into the jail setting so they can get these health care appointments and get the food and nourishment that they need.

Cara Lunsford

Isn't that fascinating? It's fascinating how we create systems where it provides the kind of support and structure that people are craving. So much of that we crave from the time we're born is structure and someone who holds us accountable, like parents who care right where it all starts. And then suddenly, if that is not in their everyday life and they don't have that structure, they don't have that accountability, they don't have that support, they are going to go in, seek it wherever they can find it.

And then sure enough, there they find themselves in your jail.

Benniesha Scott

Right.

Cara Lunsford

And so we have to break the cycle, right? Like in some way it's where do we break the cycle? And I think, Bonnie, she made a really good point about community health and accountability, making sure that people stay accountable. It's tough if the penalty for not being accountable is going back to jail if they don't view it as a penalty, you know, they're going to take care of me if we can provide the care that they need, but the freedom that they also want, it's like, okay, how can we then create this accountability system where it's like, okay, you have to come back, Maybe you have to check in and get your meds and stuff

like that, but you get to have your freedom as long as you do the check ins.

Christina Casas

But they don't. And that's one of the problems too. It's accountability. They're not accountable to do their own. You have to want to help out there. I mean, once they go and hit the drugs, they forget about everything. I don't care about my meds. I want what makes me feel good. And they get hooked and it's never ending.

Cara Lunsford

Yeah. It's also like when you think about how, like, water runs down off of a mountain and it carves a path and the water always wants to go towards that path, that's the path of least resistance, right? And even if we start to create another path, you're only going to get some of the water to divert off that path and to try and create a deeper groove into the ground.

And it's really hard because it takes a lot of work on your behalf to carve out that additional pathway, because it's this combination of where people have to choose the pathway, where they walk it and they help to drill that into the ground by walking it. And at the same time, there's people like you, Christina and Venetia, that are digging the pathway, too.

And it takes a partnered approach, right? It takes you guys and it takes them to be participants.

Christina Casas

That want to do it and get it done is not going to work. We can help all we want and do this and do that, but ultimately it's up to the person. Yeah, this is the bottom line.

Cara Lunsford

It's true. Someone told me once and this was when I was working in Home Health, they said, you know, you can't care more for people than they care about themselves because I would hunt people down to give them their medications and they wouldn't call me back. And I was trying to set up their appointments and I'm like, Oh my God, But they're not going to get their med and they need their meds and nobody's calling me back.

And a very seasoned home health nurse said to me, You can't care about people more than they care about themselves. You can help them if they show up. You can definitely be there if they show up. But it's very, very hard. You can't just do it for them. So it's very true. But something keeps you guys there. This is a hard job.

Maybe it's the benefits and the pay. I don't know, aside from maybe the security and the benefits and the pay or the it's the devil you know versus the devil you don't know, Right? It's like maybe you stay because you know it.

Christina Casas

The grass is greener on the other side, too. You know, it's not a venture here every day.

Cara Lunsford

Yeah, well, that's exciting, too. I mean, like, for people who really thrive in that environment where they like the excitement a little bit, not knowing we.

Christina Casas

Like action over here. I think that's one of the things because it's a different story every day, you know, every day and you see something different, there's always something going on to me. I have to I can't be in front of a computer all day long typing. I did before I became a nurse. I did six years of claims examiners.

I work for Aetna. So I was on the computer. I mean, I typed like 200 words a minute. It was just a boring job, just like I love this, I love dealing, I love the interaction. But sometimes I can get very stressful up here, not really physically because we're not laboring, but mentally it can really get to you because you can only take so much causing so much hatred in one day.

112 hours is a lot, you know, So I think that so many times I'll say one day at a time, it is like, Oh my God. And some days are worse than others and some days are good. I've been here so long. I know the ins and outs backwards and forwards. I don't want to go and start something new and get used to the people.

Get them used to me. I'm like, Let me just deal with this until I can't do anything else and like walk or being with my little cane or something. When I get.

Cara Lunsford

To speaking to every nurse out there, every nurses leg.

Christina Casas

I have, as long as I'm still able to care for these people. But once I feel like my body can't do it anymore or, you know, it becomes too much for me because I am getting older, I think that's when I will just hang up my gloves.

Cara Lunsford

Hang up your gloves, hang up your scrubs.

Benniesha Scott

So never going to hang up.

Cara Lunsford

You guys are lifers.

Christina Casas

They just stay at home. I'm I'm a workaholic. I work a lot. I always have. And I think that's just my personal loyalty. And I've done TDCJ also the Texas Department of Corrections, the big prisons I've done them to. I've worked a couple of other county jails, like agency, like PR and stuff. So I've been out there.

Cara Lunsford

Something you just said sparked a thought in my mind where what do you do to protect your energy? We kind of fill ourselves up with our own energy, with our own light. Whatever your belief system is like, I like to kind of fill myself up with divine light, and then I'll kind of wrap myself visually in light. It was a practice that I learned from a practitioner who works in energy, work, and it really works because I was kind of like, All right, the light that's out here, that's for you.

You can have that. I'm giving it to you. I'm going to that you can feed off of it, you can drain it, whatever it is that needs to happen, that's for you. But what's inside of me is for me. And the minute you start to feel like this that's on the outside is gone and it's starting to seep into the inside, you know that you're going to have to step away, you got to refill, you got to put that protection up.

Because what you were saying, Christine, like people cursing at you is such a drain.

Christina Casas

It drains you. It drains you mentally. And for me, me working so much fear in there, Joe. And some of the nurses ask me like, Oh my God, I don't know how you can even do four days in a row for 12 days or, you know, sometimes I've done 512 in a row, you know, I'm very big on money.

I love my money, I love overtime. I have bills to pay. I have still have kids, two kids in college. But I also have to know that spiritually, mentally, I have to be prepared to be here. Because if I know that my body, if I work too much and I know my body is okay, you're you're too tired.

I first of all, I got to get my vitamins, all all types of vitamins. I take a lot of vitamins every day. I try to go to sleep by at least 930 every night because I know I get up at four in the morning. I don't like to be late. And so I know that I have to go to sleep at a decent time.

I try to exercise to keep healthy. It's a lot of various things. And then you come here to the jail. I always think my prayer in the morning, Please let me have a good day. I'll try to get my mind positive in the morning before I walk in the building because sometimes when I hear the detention officers talking to all, it is just another day, another dollar.

I said, don't, don't, don't say that in front of me because it really bothers me. I think I have been very blessed with this job, but I'm very grateful because as a single mother, it has helped me bring my kids into a spot that they're able to fend for themselves now if need to. I'm very grateful for this place because it has really helped me tremendously.

I'm trying to stay positive, trying to come in positive to this day because I already know what I'm going to go into as soon as 6:00. Yet I've had days where I don't really call in, but sometimes I've had to call in because I need a mental health day because my week has just been very stressful. I've been dealing with bad cases of people that just, oh my goodness, you know, like, oh God, what do you do?

You know.

Cara Lunsford

I think that that's such a great practice. And everything you said I think was just such good self care. Venecia Like, similarly, I think there's a level of compassion that we're able to bring to mental health that can be a little easier in some ways.

Benniesha Scott

So for me I'm a little bit different because up here it's just, I mean I'll be called everything. I was like, Oh, I haven't heard that one before. I'm gonna write it down, you know, cause I've heard it before. I don't really take it personal. So I'm assuming it was coming from a different place. As far as self-care, I'm all about the self-care.

I don't play bingo. I get my nails done, I get a massage, I get facial. I'm doing everything. When I leave here, it's kind of like, okay, that was the day I was like, Oh, that was the day, you know? But sometimes it's just you can do the best you can and you can put in everything you got and is still not going to let you feel like you've done enough.

So I've had those days to ask about a couple of times on the way home and I'm like, Man, I wish I could have done more, but it was all I could do, you know, like undone. But then you just come back the next day. You just keep on pushing. So this job, this facility and being a nurse and corrections is all about keeping on pushing because there's always going to be patients, there's always going to be people coming in through intake.

There's always going to be people coming through. JPC There's always going to be people down in the clinic. It's always going to be a situation that you just have to get up and go do something.

Cara Lunsford

Yeah, it's how you figure out how to make it sustainable, right? You each have figured out ways independently of each other to create sustainability, to be in this profession. And I think that it's so important for nurses who are listening, who are in whatever area of nursing that they're in, where they're saying, Yeah, that all resonates with me and I'm just trying to figure out how to keep pushing.

So one of the things I'll actually bring up really quickly, one of the major talking points right now in health care and for nurses is nurse patient ratios. Now, in the hospital setting, we kind of know that it's beds of patients. We look into acuity now in correctional nursing. How do you guys look at nurse to patient ratios?

Benniesha Scott

Maura Cluster care.

Cara Lunsford

Cluster care, okay.

Benniesha Scott

Because we have different jobs. We have to make cards that go. We have wound care, we have insulin, we have admis, we have charging, we have rounds, all of those different things. We have lab, but they all cluster here. So the Med nurse will be responsible for passing this amount of meds. Our morning nurse, and she's running one car.

We have four carts on the second floor. They can pass 800 meds. Marquis the card for three. Here's the card. We encourage you to call the beast card. Number one. The Beast. Okay, relax. So I do come now. And when I started the narcotics, then all those good drugs were given now by pen and paper only, you know.

Christina Casas

And so I would come down with seven pages of narcotics every day because they will get three Vicodin, two Klonopin. I mean, it was just a ridiculous amount of drugs that they would get back in. So 800 doesn't scare me. I've done way more than 800. We're talking to the other nurses, you know, who don't know about corrections that you get past and unsurmountable amount of medication in a small amount of time.

Benniesha Scott

But we just have a lot of different hats that we wear and that doesn't even include like when we have emergencies that we have to jump into action to do CPR or perform any kind of other lifesaving procedures for patients. We have more of a cluster care situation.

Christina Casas

Yeah, we there's no ratios but like in my building is the the main thing is processing. That's when they get booked in the whole process. So the area that I'm in is call intake when they come straight from the street and then they start their rebooking. And so I could have probably in the area there on that, probably like 40 people sit in there. I'm still responsible for all those patients right in front of me.

So if something wants to happen and it has happened where I have one emergency, at one corner, I have another emergency and then the detention officer is free guy back up and ready to take water. So I'm telling my other nurse, go to the other corner out into this one and we just have to figure it out. And if there's something else, then, you know, give me let me finish this one.

Or if he's on the floor, contact one, one or call the clinic. We have to get somebody to come. But when they come to me, they're not even booked in or nothing. There's no information and they're coming from the street. So it's a little bit more harder because they want me to do something. Now, if I recognize them from previous years, somebody who comes in and out, then I already know, okay, he's having a seizure.

This is normal or whatever, you know. But if you don't know the person, why are they having a seizure? Are they getting overdose? What's going on? But I'm responsible for that group of people. The nurses are responsible for hundreds of people upstairs. You know, all the nurses in the clinic. There might be four nurses in the clinic, three screeners or four screeners.

All of those nurses at the end of the day are responsible for everybody out there. So when something happens, they need to respond. And unfortunately, there's been times where you get called from here, you get a call from here, you get a call from there. At the same time, the whole building, one from each corner, you know, So you send one here, you send another nurse, you send.

And there's been times that I've been in charge and I had to stay by myself in the clinic because I have three nurses responding to emergency. You just have to figure it out and make it happen.

Cara Lunsford

And that's nursing. We've learned how to do that. I'm curious. Finish what you think about this in the acute care setting. How could you see what you guys do in a correctional center like more of this cluster care benefiting the hospital system? Like if the hospital system were to adopt more of what the correctional institution uses? Like, do you think that there would be benefits?

Benniesha Scott

I do. I actually did a paper on that because I felt like it would be better to have the multidisciplinary team at the bedside with the patient because I felt like it would cut across some of those communications because if one person system, it would tip the doctors here, let's go and do this. That way there would be like a safety net to protect the patients.

You know, when they do discharge, if they don't miss out on a lot of the care that they should get. I feel like if they had the multidisciplinary classic care atmosphere at the hospitals and anything else, I think would be better. Instead of having one person come in at one time and one person come in and one person come in, you know, just go round on the patient all together.

And I think that would be a better experience, both the patient and the facility.

Cara Lunsford

Yeah, like if you were doing an assessment and while you're doing the assessment, the Albion is maybe doing the wound care or administering some of the injections, all of that's being done kind of at the same time in the Arne's doing an assessment and I agree, I think we're really missing out on LV ends in the acute care setting.

I think some of them are being brought back in, thank God.

Christina Casas

Because they're short. But when I came out, I didn't have a problem working at the hospital. I did one year of Med Surge here in Houston and Tomball Tomball Regional. I mean Albans, where even in the ICU and all those big units. But now as I see more Albion's openings in the hospitals, again.

Cara Lunsford

Yes, it's coming back.

Christina Casas

They hurt my little feelings. So I'm not going to go do nothing for the hospital. I'm staying here at the jail. It just changes time, change different requirements. You know, I'm not hating. Unfortunately, I didn't make myself go back to school. I got lazy and that's pretty much what happened. And my kids are like, Mom, you get I'm 50 years old.

Do I really want a hassle of going back to school and, you know, doing all of that? You getting gaining all that weight, being stressed out, not having time. I mean, I should have done it when I was younger, you know. But I think at this time, the point in my life, I don't really know if I want to go back and do all of that.

And then those are my thoughts on how do I just retire from the jail and then just go have fun. But knowing me, I'm going to keep going, you know? So my thought was, I probably want to end up at like a little school or something. And my kid's like, Mom, can you really imagine you coming from the jail after 20 plus years going to a school?

I'm like, Yeah, I can't imagine myself because that's what kids need nowadays. Nobody is come to my clinic for nothing unless, you know, we'll be doing the same thing at the jail. Show me. Well, you all been throwing up the the you. Okay, here's a bag. Sit right here and I want to see what you're throwing up. And that's what I will be doing to the kids do.

Because everybody and even my kids, they would call me from school. Mom, I'm in. For what? Well, you know, I'm not going to go pick you up. I mean, you literally they literally have to be dying in order for the nurse to call me to go pick them up. If you call me, he's throwing out. When did you see the mom?

It? Yes, I get. Okay, I'm coming.

Cara Lunsford

Oh, my gosh. That's hilarious. It's very true. You don't want to be like that. My son. I was an oncology nurse for many years and pediatric oncology. And so I was like, is it a tumor? Oh, it's not a you're fine. Just go to school.

Christina Casas

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Cara Lunsford

From a here's health perspective, what do you like the most about Harris Health?

Benniesha Scott

I think we have a definitely a lot better leadership leading with love, which they actually do leave with love like it's a very understanding environment and we're actually getting into the nursing part and turning into a hospital setting versus just a jail. We're getting a lot of new equipment, a lot of things that are better. Help us take care of the patients that we do take care of.

Get more up to date with documentation. Computers like the MRI and the patients charts and things like that. So for me, the technology part is great, the leadership part is great and the opportunities that's great too. You can pretty much do if you set your mind to it. You can do whatever you want, even go back to school.

Cara Lunsford

Hopefully people who have listened to this podcast, they're going to start thinking about correctional health and they're going to be like, I want to push the beast. And yeah, and I'm down for pushing the beast and that they know that there is a supportive group of nurses that are there to train them and help them learn this new avenue of nursing.

Christina Casas

Not all the nurses eat. They're young. I don't believe in that. I believe in training somebody properly the right way. The first time, because once they learn something bad, the first time that they are doing forever and ever, and they're going to keep doing it like that. And I like to do things right. The first time, or at least try.

So there will be no oh, no, let's get it right the first time. So that's what I believe it. But I believe in teaching everybody the correct way. And, you know, I'm always there and I always tell them, if you need anything, let me know. I have a loud mouth. So a lot of people are kind of like they think I'm the main person because of just the way I talk and stuff.

I'm just loud. That's just the way God made me, you know? But I always tell him, You come and ask me anything. No question is a stupid question. You know, we're here to learn. And they're like, Oh my God, But you know so much. Yeah, but I've been here 20 years. You just got here two weeks ago. You can expect to learn or to know so much in two weeks, two months, or even two years.

Cara Lunsford

Do you recommend that if somebody is thinking about going into this, maybe they're a new nurse, maybe they're not? Is there anything that you recommend that they do? I used to joke and tell people I'm like, You should have been a waitress first because you got to learn how to juggle.

Really be able to multitask and multitasking. If you're a mom, you're a multitasker, if you're a waitress, you've had to be a multitasker. There's definitely careers that have helped people to be a little bit better at certain types of professions. Specifically, though, around this, and I'll kind of make this my last question to you both, Venecia, what would you say?

Give me something that you think someone could do to prepare themselves for a career in this area.

Benniesha Scott

I think honestly, if you could work at a daycare, that would be a nice start because you can deal with a lot of patients and you would deal with people who are hard to communicate with, it's kind of like nothing you can do to get prepared for it because you only know it's for you once you jump into it.

Because once you jump into, some people love it. Some people are like, Oh, I could do this every day. Some people they come in and they're like, Oh, this is what this is. Yes. Okay. And then they go on their lunch break. And university, the like is just very interesting. It can go either way. You don't know until you just get into it.

Christina Casas

I think for me, I don't think there's anything you can do to prepare for it, I think is your work ethic. I think just be prepared for the chaos and to work and then just be have a positive mindset. You are going to be able to get through it no matter how hard it seems in the beginning. Just be prepared to work is a lot of work.

Sometimes there's downtime, sometimes it's rare downtime, so you just take it as it comes, but just be prepared to work. And that lazy mentality, leave it out the door. Because if you think if you had a correctional, if you don't want to work, then you just need to go and go to McDonald's or I don't know where, but not here.

Mentally, it can drain you Sometimes work will drain you the long hours, especially if you work 12 hours will drain you. So all of that combined is going to drain you. But like I say, you to take care of yourself mentally, physically, spiritually, every kind of way. Take your vitamins, drink water, go to sleep early, and you should be able to deal with everything.

Say a prayer in the morning before you come in.

Cara Lunsford

I feel like that is like the mic drop right there. Right there. She's like, Christine is just like my job.

Christina Casas

She is got to work and has right to work. Prepare. Bring your water. Please come. Someone please bring your black pen and a red pen. Be prepared. Nurses don't come in to jail without no pens or try to be writing. Wear blue pens on order. You know, paperwork. That is government paperwork. Oh, my goodness. Be prepared. You bring your stethoscope, red and black pen.

Benniesha Scott

Bring your stethoscope.

Cara Lunsford

For this podcast. We do like these little teasers at the beginning of the episode. I feel like the end of this podcast is going to be a teaser for the beginning of this podcast Bring your pens, make sure you went to bed. Oh, God, ladies, this delivered. This was entertaining and informative and fun. And I say thank you for your America.

Thanks you for your service.

Christina Casas

Thank you. Somebody has to do it.

Cara Lunsford

Somebody's got to do it.

Benniesha Scott

Why not us?

Cara Lunsford

Why not.

Benniesha Scott

Us? Right.

Cara Lunsford

Well, it was a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for being here.

Thank you, ladies. All right.

Benniesha Scott

Bye bye.

Cara Lunsford

Bye, ladies.

If you're a nurse or a nursing student who enjoyed this episode, don't forget to join us on the nurse dot com app where you can find the nurse dot discussion group, a place where we dissect each episode in detail and delve deeper into today's topics. Nurse Dot is a nurse dot com original podcast series, production music and sound Editing by Dawn Lunsford.

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