If you ask Shirley Bamford why a recent nursing graduate would decide on a career in corrections, her answer is simple: “You get hooked…it’s never boring, never static, and you can spend your whole career learning and doing new things. You never know what the day ahead will bring.” It is this precise unpredictable environment that has motivated nurses like Shirley to excel since the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) introduced its first Registered Nurses at Collins Bay Institution in 1974.

CSC’s institutions have been host to a multitude of changes and improvements in health care service delivery over the years. The introduction of CSC’s first wide-scale public health program in 1982 – to combat tuberculosis – led to the transformation of our infectious disease protocols for HIV/AIDS, Avian flu and the preparation for H1N1 flu outbreaks.

Challenges inherent to the correctional environment, such as the high proportion of inmates with a history of substance abuse, have led to the creation of specialized approaches such as our Opioid Substitution Therapy Program. In addition, our patient health information systems are progressing from paper-based records towards an automated database system, the proposed Health Information Management Module project.

Today’s CSC nurses require the technical knowledge, training and expertise in their field to treat patients, as well as a broad knowledge of the protocols, policies, and regulations that come with working in corrections. The most important assets for a CSC nurse remain the demonstration of sound judgement, and the ability to make autonomous decisions when working independently.

Nursing in corrections also presents some personal and professional challenges. On a personal level, family and friends may not understand the motives behind the seemingly untraditional career choice. On a professional level, high stress levels, resource constraints, demanding work hours and new technologies, coupled with the correctional environment and isolation from peers, may be perceived as daunting for some.

To better equip nurses for this unconventional career choice, CSC has developed extensive training for both its new nursing recruits, as well as those who have worked in the corrections field for years. The first of such programs is the New Nurse Orientation Program, which provides new recruits with CSC Health Services training in a classroom setting. The second program is the Skills Enhancement Training Program, which offers opportunities for existing staff to enhance and upgrade their skills and expertise. These enhanced training programs reflect the increased complexity associated with the roles of correctional nurses.

In return for such challenges, CSC’s nurses are provided with a lifetime’s worth of rewards, both personally and professionally. Just ask Shirley, who after 28 years at CSC affirms that, “correctional nurses are dedicated, or they wouldn’t stay as long as they do. Even with all the changes…they simply love their jobs. I am confident that the nurses and nursing managers of today will meet the challenges of the future, just as we have met the challenges of the past.”