Withdrawal is one of the most common conditions encountered in correctional healthcare. For many nurses entering the specialty, learning to recognize and manage withdrawal becomes a major focus of orientation and training. While those skills are important, one of the most valuable lessons I learned is that withdrawal should never become the explanation for everything. Patients experiencing withdrawal can present…
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This week I am at the National Commission on Correctional Health Care’s Fall conference, and if you have ever attended, you know the feeling. Within a few hours, the hallways fill with conversations that would make little sense almost anywhere else. Someone describes a medication pass that ran two hours late because of a lockdown. Someone else asks how other…
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It’s 2:30 in the morning. You saw a patient at evening sick call for a cough and fever, and you have reassessed him twice since then. His respiratory rate is a little faster than it was earlier, and his oxygen saturation is a few points lower. He tells you he feels about the same. Nothing is dramatically abnormal, and nothing…
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