I swear to mother fucking God, I will one day soon have a good entry in the 'Get To Work' series. Sadly, today is not that day. Lemme catch you up before I lay out what's happened and what is going to happen. My last entry in this series was on November 7th. I had just put my application in at the prison hospital and was hoping for an interview. These next few updates cam in my 'Update' series as none of them were big enough for a Get To Work update.
In the middle of November I applied again to any prison nursing job that was in driving distance. I also applied to a different state mental health hospital that is within driving distance. In early December I had my interview at the prison hospital for the supervisor position. I thought it went well. It was with the acting HUM who had worked for me back in COVID times as a contract nurse. There were also three RN supervisors, one of whom had directed me to apply for this job. From what I understood, there were two positions open (one evening, one day, both 12 hour shifts) and there were 15 people scheduled for interviews. I know that when it comes to interviews, you get a little over half of those scheduled so let's assume they interviewed nine or ten people for the two positions.
To reiterate, I thought the interview went well. I got a good vibe from everybody on the panel, especially the acting HUM who would be making the lions share of the selection. I came in with four years experience in the job I was applying for and a total of ten years experience in the department of corrections. I found it hard to believe that they'd find one, let alone two, people better qualified than me. So while I would have been prudent of me to begin applying to other positions, I held off.
Two weeks after the interview, without hearing any news, I sent a text to the nursing supervisor that had directed me to the job. I honestly didn't expect a great response as she wasn't making the decision, but I hoped she had an idea of what was going on and she would say something along the lines of "everything is moving forward". Instead, I got silence for a week and a half. That can't possibly be a good sign. When she did finally respond she apologized for taking so long claiming its been a busy few weeks and that "I know there was an offer sent to another candidate but haven’t heard if they accepted. You are the next pick if they don’t accept."
I thanked her for the update and hoped that it would still go my way, but I was sunk with that news. If she heard that 'an' offer went out that must mean that two went out. So at best, I'm the number 3 candidate. There is either something holding me back (time and attendance again?) or this nursing supervisor has been against me all this time and feeding me bad info. I find it hard to believe the latter scenario there as we just didn't have that impactful of a relationship with each other. The level of 'fucking with me' that would entail is quite devious.
Regardless, I wallowed in that state for several days. It still hadn't been four weeks so I didn't know if I should move on or not. I half convinced myself that 'no news is good news' as I hadn't yet heard 'no'. BUT the person I'd hear no from is the same person that told the recruiter that I wasn't 'leadership' wasn't going to hire me, so she very may well be fucking with me. I hate being this paranoid.
I decided a couple days ago that if this job comes through, it's all good. I'll accept it, go through the hiring process, get through the training and probationary periods and finally move on once I know my job is secure. At the same time, I would no longer hold my breath for it. I need to move on. I took out the rest of my 401k so I now have a very finite amount of time to get a job and get money rolling in.
I started the process that day, December 28th. I applied to the Federal prison that's nearby. The Federal prison nursing job is in essence, the same as the State prison nursing job. The pay is different, the benefits are different, but essentially it's the same job. And while I've heard of several state nurses moving to the federal prison, I've never heard of a federal nurse coming to the state prison system. I'm not saying it doesn't happen or hasn't ever happened, but I know a LOT of nurses and heard about a LOT MORE nurses in the state system and haven't come across a single example of a fed prison nurse becoming a state prison nurse. So, it has to be good. Right?
While applying, I realized that this is the first position outside of the state system I've applied to in over twelve years. I've applied to other state prisons and the state mental health hospital, but I haven't applied to any other job. The fed system suggests making a resume with their application system instead of uploading yours so I went with that. As with any nursing job, it asks some specific questions at the end but... these ones were weird.
Two examples:
"How is your commitment to the constitutions and the founding principles of the United States inspired you to pursue this role within the federal government?"
"How would you help advance the President's executive orders and policy priorities in this role?"
Yeah. This is straight up authoritarian 'We only hire those that are with us' type questions. And I am in NO WAY 'with' this current administration. I answered the questions in a BS way without giving the answers that they want. I'm hoping that whomever hires for these roles realizes that a nurse's role isn't affected by his or her love of the constitution nor their desire to help advance the President's executive orders. Of course, the Federal Bureau of Prisons is within the Department of Justice. Under Attorney General Pam Bondi. One of President Trumps most loyal lackeys. Who knows how diabolical she's made that entire department.
Just as all the state jobs are run through a single website, all federal jobs are supposed to go through one website. So while I was there and had already set up an account and set up my resume, I looked for any other federal nursing jobs that would be within driving distance. I found three. Two were at a Veteran's Administration community living center and one was at a Veteran's Administration mental health facility.
The mental health facility seemed like an easy in. With my experience working at the state mental health hospital and working at the state prisons with mental health residential treatment programs, I could easily sell me as being overly qualified as a mental health nurse. So the next day I put my application in there. That same day i started looking for other nursing jobs and ended up on Indeed. While I have no intention of doing actual job applications through Indeed or any other job search site, I figured it would be a good way to see what opportunities were out there.
A few immediately stood out. The local hospital, where the vast majority of nursing jobs will be found, has an opening in their behavioral health center. Just like the VA job, this should be an easy get. There was also a job listing for the local mental health outpatient center that evidently DOES have a secured area (at least the job description does talk about elopement, which is just a very nice word for "escaping"). Then there were several jobs in hospice roles, and several jobs in senior living centers, and two in recovery hospitals.
Before I applied to any other jobs, I realized I needed to step back and make a plan. While yes, I do intend to just pepper the wall with applications now, there is still going to be a hierarchy to what jobs I want.
Coming from Correctional Nursing, I am very qualified for Correctional Nursing. And that's about it. Yes, I'm a nurse. I have my degree and my license which makes me qualified for any nursing job. But I've been working in a position where I utilized very few nursing skills. If I go into a hospital setting I'll be expected to do urinary catheters, IVs, breathing machines, wound dressings, drainage machines, and all other manner of procedures that I've learned and done but not since nursing school. Nursing school that I graduated in 2011. And this isn't a skill gap that they won't recognize. They'll KNOW that I have a gap. A brand new graduate nurse would be a better hire in more circumstances than a correctional nurse. Plus there's the assumption that correctional nurses are assholes that don't care about their patients. While I do care about my patients... well, I AM an asshole.
So, obviously working as a floor nurse in a hospital isn't ideal for me. I would not enjoy it, be good at it, nor be welcomed into it. But there are other areas of nursing.
There is one other layer of correctional nursing. Jails. There are mental health facilities. There are recovery hospitals. There are senior living centers. There are ambulatory clinics. Let's go over these:
- Jails
- Obviously, correctional nursing is correctional nursing. The problem here is that while the state and federal systems are set up for long term care and hire the nurses outright, jails are mostly about short term care and farm out their healthcare. I'd be working for a contract company who is all about saving money. An easy way to save money is putting responsibilities on nurses that properly belong with doctors. In the prison, I'm fine with that because I have standing doctor's orders. I have the ability and legal protection to work. But these contract companies are known for setting up nurses without the protections. So... not ideal.
- Mental Health Facilities
- These are almost always underfunded and sad. The staff and facility is overworked as there is just too many people that need too much help without anybody stepping up to provide it or even pay for it. But it's a job that wouldn't be looking for the nursing skills like a hospital would and I should be able to sell my qualifications quite easily. ESPECIALLY if they have a secured unit.
- Recovery Hospitals
- Basically a longer term hospital. Most patients stay in the hospital for days. If they require a long recovery period, they go to one of these places. It's still supportive care, but it's not as acute as the hospital. Yes, there would be nursing skills needed that I don't really have at the ready, but they're not as important as in the hospital. The assessments are far more important and there I am golden.
- Senior Living Centers
- The next rung down. If hospitals are acute supportive and recovery hospitals are supportive care, senior living centers are mostly non acute supportive or almost ambulatory care. a LOT of the care here is CNA or LPN level. Passing meds, helping the patients to the bathroom or to clean themselves, helping the dementia patients to get up and around. A lot of the RNs job here is supervisory over LPNs and CNAs.
- Ambulatory Clinics
- These are the walk in clinics that you see dotted around the area. My home town has had a few for years and years but since just before COVID times, they've blown up and are everywhere. Off the top of my head, just near the area that I live, I know of three of these clinics. These are more or less what I was doing in the prison without the long term care side. People come in with a problem. They're sick or hurt or have some problem that doesn't warrant a trip to the emergency room but is more urgent than waiting days to get into their own doctor.
There are several ways to order these. Desirability on my side, hire-ability on their side would be the two most important ones. If the jails were like the prisons, working for the county/city instead of a contract company, they'd be my number one choice AND number one on hire-ability. They should want me pretty easily. But I don't want them. I had some slight interactions with jail nurses when I was working at the reception center at the prison. We were literally transferring patient care from the jail to prison. It wasn't a rare item as these jails are large and send inmates to the prison on a regular basis. But even then it was like pulling teeth just to get the information we needed. Sure, its likely their internal system that doesn't let them pass on information but a good nurse would realize the issue (continuing care) and find a way to work around it. None of the nurses I dealt with seemed to care. I don't want to be an uncaring nurse.
The hospital and recovery hospital are about the same to me. They're both classic nurse jobs and I really am not a classic nurse. First, the correctional system has made me far more independent. I rely on my skills and standing orders to do what I need to do. In the hospitals you rely on doctors and their orders. There are very few standing orders and you only really use your assessment skills when ordered to do so by a doctor. I'm not saying its bad or 'less' of a nurse than what I do, it's just different and not my wheelhouse. So they'd be the lowest on my desirability and outside of particular departments at the main hospital, I'd be low on their hire-ability scale.
The caveat at the hospital are some of the departments. Behavioral health and their secured wing. I can sell my behavioral health side. Their secured wing is still supportive care, but it's specifically dealing with inmates from the jails or state/federal prisons. My history working in that system would give me an advantage. BUT our local hospital is a magnet hospital. That means if I get a job there I'd be signing an agreement to continue my education. I'd have to be IN a bachelor's program within three years and have a bachelors degree in nursing within five years of hiring in. No bachelor's degree, no job. That pulls them down a bit on my desirability scale as I don't' want to go back to school.
Senior Living Centers are... fine. I don't particularly like dealing with geriatric patients, though I am skilled at it as we had plenty of geriatric prisoners to deal with. It's like the worst combination though as there are very few assessments, I'd still be locked in by doctor's orders, and on top of that I'd be doing very little other than passing meds and managing the LPNs and CNAs. My desirability is fairly low and their hire-ability would be high because few RNs want to work there and they're always hard up for nurses. Basically it's like correctional nursing (not considered 'real' nursing) without the meanness of prisons.
I wouldn't have thought the mental health facilities would be something I'd want but... I have to admit my skill set does put me right in their sights. This wouldn't be a major learning curve like most of the other jobs would be, especially if there was a secured area. Both the VA job and the local mental health job are pretty high on my list and I think I'd be pretty high on theirs.
Finally, ambulatory clinics. I think this is the closest I'd get to what I had in the prison. The nurse does the triage and the initial assessment. From there, I assume they pass it on to the medical professional (doctor, physicians assistant, nurse practitioner) to confirm and make any final diagnoses and treatments. I know of one nurse I worked with at the prison who works at a clinic and she seems happy... but I only see her on social media and only the stupid complain about their job on social media where their bosses can see them. I might reach out to her and see if she has any advice.
So, with that thought out, I guess I have an order. I've already applied to the federal prison and the VA mental health facility. Next up is the local mental health facility. After that is finding out more about the ambulator clinics and applying to them. Then the behavioral health wing at the hospital. Then the senior living centers (both VA and local ones), and then recovery hospitals and hospital.
These should go fairly quickly. I don't want to apply today as it's New Year's Day, but tomorrow I'll apply to the local mental health facility and reach out to the nurse at the ambulatory clinic. Whether I hear from her or not I'll look into the ambulatory clinics early next week. Monday or Tuesday.
I'll also send out an email either today or tomorrow asking specifically about the state prison hospital job. I'm expecting to get an answer like last time "Gone with another candidate" but its worth asking as its now been over a month since the interview.
While I don't feel good since I'm moving on from the jobs that I want, I DO feel good that I'm moving in the direction of getting hired again. It's been far too long and I need to get back into working.
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