Originally aired November 20, 2010: Valerie Lane, RN, CLNC, discusses legal risk for correctional nurses. Valerie is a certified legal nurse consultant specializing in correctional cases and has worked many years in the California Corrections System.
Laura MacQueen says
I have been a nurse for about 30 years and 3 years ago began working in Corrections. I love this job! It is so rewarding and yet humbling when inmates seek you out because they know you know what you are doing, are compassionate, and will follow through.
I have a question about LPNs and the Nurse Practice Act. Our Illinois NPA states that RNs do assessments and formulate the plan of care. Can an LPN do admission intakes, “RN” sick call, and be in charge when RN’s are on duty? I have never worked with LPNs before this job in Corrections, but I strongly suspect we are not following the NPA. On the other hand, I find the Nurse Practice Act rather vague and hard to interpret. Is there a resource you can suggest?
Lorry Schoenly says
Thanks for your comments Laura: LPN practice is very state specific and often hinges on the definition of assessment vs data gathering. What I generally see in states that limit the assessment to RNs is that nursing sick call must be done by RNs while intake ‘screening’ and data collection can be done by LPNs. I’m not sure what you mean by ‘in charge’ so I can’t really speak to that. I hope others in the CorrectionalNurse.net community also comment here.
Laura MacQueen says
Thank you very much for your answer. Intake vs Sick Call makes perfect sense. In our infirmary an LPN delegates to and directs the RNs. I don’t always agree with her assessments and plans of care – especially since she’s old school in withholding pain meds because of “drug seeking”. As an RN, couldn’t I be help responsible for what she does?