Work with Justice Health NSW

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We acknowledge and pay respects to the Traditional Custodians and Elders - past, present and emerging - of the lands and water on which Justice Health NSW members and staff live, learn and work.

[Alice - Registered Nurse, Lithgow Correctional Centre]

I didn't even realize that nurses worked in prisons, I I hadn't really thought about it before.

[Michelle - Enrolled Nurse, Mid North Coast Correctional Centre]

So, primary healthcare in a correctional center looks a bit like A to Z of nursing, so we do a little bit of everything. We look after wounds, we look after infections, immunizations, we look after emergency responses, drug and alcohol assessments, primary health assessments for people coming into custody. So, you might get anything from a toothache to like a spider bite to a stub wound.

I think apart from having cells associated with our clinic, it's not unlike a hospital environment in the clinical setting. They are really nice places to be.

[Abdullah - Registered Nurse, Drug and Alcohol John Morony Correctional Centre]

A lot of people don't really realize that it's more like a GP Clinic than anything else.

[Michelle - Enrolled Nurse, Mid North Coast Correctional Centre]

We do have a lot of chronic disease, people with chronic diseases which we manage, but it's general everyday things that you would go and see your GP or the chemist for that our patients come to us for.

[Phil - Endorsed Enrolled Nurse Geoffrey Pearce Correctional Centre]

Well, you tend to be a bit more autonomous than what you would be in any other health setting. Yeah, you're given the opportunity to make more decisions. You wouldn't get that working in any other health setting that I've worked in personally.

[Michelle - Enrolled Nurse, Mid North Coast Correctional Centre]

So, we work with a team of approximately 5 to 7 nurses a day in primary health, we do clinical work but also the more monotonous chores of nursing, it's like medication and methadone and all the things that you know our patients need. So on an average day you have so much autonomy over how your day runs, you choose your list, you choose who, what patients are coming up.

[Phil - Endorsed Enrolled Nurse Geoffrey Pearce Correctional Centre]

While we work all together as a team you are expected to perform on your own at certain time. When things go beyond what you're comfortable doing there's always people around you to help, always people with, you know, more experience in a certain situation than you.

[Alice - Registered Nurse, Lithgow Correctional Centre]

I found coming from the hospital to Justice Health, I was often required to use skills that I rarely used in the hospital and to develop new ones as well. I've never worked in an area where I've been as encouraged to develop my career as Justice Health. The training opportunities are amazing.

[Abdullah - Registered Nurse, Drug and Alcohol John Morony Correctional Centre]

So I started, I've been working with Justice Health for around five years now. So what, the good thing about Justice Health is, you get a wide range of opportunities.

[Michelle - Enrolled Nurse, Mid North Coast Correctional Centre]

We work really hard for the patients and we're all driven by the same goals.

[Phil - Endorsed Enrolled Nurse Geoffrey Pearce Correctional Centre]

You're not going to find such a varied amount of people in one place coming from all different walks of life and just wonderful, wonderful people to work with. Best I've had in 20 years of nursing.

[Alice - Registered Nurse, Lithgow Correctional Centre]

So a common misconception, I think, of people that don't work in a prison is that we're constantly involved in really scary situations but it's not actually true I feel very safe in the gaol, probably more safe than in a emergency department. Corrective Services do such a great job of keeping us safe and I think oftentimes our patients they haven't been looked after and they do have health needs and when they feel like someone's actually trying to help them, often, it really does mean a lot to them. So what I found is you don't actually have to be really tough or really, really, really assertive or aggressive to work in a prison, you can be trustworthy and you can be kind and that's actually a good fit for a nurse in a prison I think.

[Michelle - Enrolled Nurse, Mid North Coast Correctional Centre]

The clinical skills that you'll gain from working in an environment like this are second to none. The interpersonal skills that you'll gain from working with the clientele that we work with is second to none and I just think the, the experience is so rewarding.