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Greg Cox

Doing exactly what he wants to do

Eight years ago, a career in the Correctional Service of Canada was the last thing on Greg Cox's mind. Today, he says, it's often the only thing.

"This job has my name written all over it," says the registered nurse at the Kingston Penitentiary Regional Hospital. "This is me, this is what I want to do." In 1994, just about to graduate from St. Lawrence College in Kingston, joining the CSC was probably the last thing he wanted to do. Certainly, it was the last thing he thought about doing. Then his nursing supervisor told him he thought Greg's personality was ideally suited for a nursing career in prison.

"It turns out he was right," says Greg. "I've been a nurse with Corrections for eight years now and I enjoy it as much today as the day I started."

Greg says he especially appreciates the independence that comes with the job. "You're given a lot more responsibility that you'd get in a normal hospital," he says. "Also, you work more closely with the doctors."

Still, that independence has some practical limits, especially when you're working in a prison system. For example, when Greg deals with a patient at the Kingston Penitentiary Regional Hospital-an eight-bed facility that serves all of the institutions in the Kingston area-he is always accompanied by two correctional officers. "We deal with the usual problems," he explains, "stomach pains, heart problems, that sort of thing. But the fact is, we get a lot of people who have been stabbed."

In fact, one of Greg's more memorable patients was a stabbing victim. "Twenty-seven times, that's how often he'd been stabbed," says Greg. He recalls that the inmate was almost out of control when he was brought in and that he was bleeding profusely. "I helped stop the bleeding, helped to calm the inmate down," says Greg. "Later, as I had more contact with him, I think he came to appreciate what we had done for him. I'd like to think that may have changed the way he viewed others."

Greg's background probably helped-he's a former child and youth worker, used to dealing with the emotional, mental as well as physical needs. Not that he's lacking in that area. "I used to kick box professionally, " he says, " and I still like to work on it."

His prescription for success as a nurse in the correctional system? "Be good medically, be good mentally."