6/6/2024
“To Whom It May Concern:
I have been a nurse for several years and many of them have been in corrections. I recently (for a couple years or longer) worked as a travel nurse for Centurion Health in Missouri.
Many employees have voiced a concern about what has been taking place on the “inside” in regards to medical care.
What was thought to be just a change in regional employees turned out to be a change for the company as a whole. There is no longer a leadership group that understands what our job as a nurse even is. Sadly, I’m not sure if they care.
Administrators are being replaced with non-medical professionals and regional has been taken over by mental health employees. Our Statewide Director of Nursing was actually working for the mental health department before she was moved over to her current position. She was never a floor nurse for Centurion or an on site administrator. The lack of knowledgeable, experienced leaders within the company has put patient care on the back burner. Policy is not being followed and there is no one to implement it because they simply do not know. Patients are going untreated due to lack of staff and/or lack of experienced staff. In fact, Centurion has ran away many of the nurses that held experience and strong nursing skills in this specialty.
I never would have imagined to see anything like this in my nursing career. Patients aren’t always given their medication or insulin and have lost their overall right to access health care as a whole. Nurses I’ve met throughout the state also report emergency and other services are at times shut down due to no staff at some facilities. I have seen this as well. I’ve also seen a medication tech or CNA respond to medical emergencies.
Some nurses have had to choose between working way beyond the legal limit or to leave without relief. It puts medical staff in a very difficult situation. Will we lose our license if we leave? Will we be too tired to provide adequate nursing care if we stay? There is no right answer.
On the news you see hospital nurses going on strike due to working conditions and dangerous nurse/patient rations. However, inside DOC some facilities leave one nurse to care for 25+ patients in their infirmary. Sometimes, they’re the only nurse in the facility which means they also have to deal with so much more that may happen. For those that do not know, an infirmary is where patients are admitted when they’re either critically ill, recovering from surgery or have injuries that are too severe for them to care for in their cell.
Not only are nurses expected to work with dangerously low staffing levels, they’re are often expected to pass medications without completed medication administration records. The administration doesn’t understand why this is a problem or that it is illegal.
Trust me when I say, if some of the facilities inside Missouri DOC right now were subjected to routine inspections from outside agencies, they would be shut down immediately.
I am very concerned as to what the future looks like in regards to healthcare for patients in the Missouri Department of Corrections. I often find myself saying it cannot get any worse, but it does. Even though this statement is anonymous, I speak for several nurses whom have the same concerns. Complaints have been filed with the Missouri State Board of Nursing with no result. Nurses that have spoke out have been retaliated against and are forced to work in a hostile work environments. We just want better.
Sincerely,
Just a Prison Nurse”