Houston Chronicle, Sunday, Jan. 14
With more than 4 million documented patient encounters per year, UTMB Correctional Managed Care is one of the largest correctional managed health-care systems in the United States, and it employs more than 4,000 people and serves 162,000 patients annually. "Prison nursing is a very respectable position, which allows nurses to use all of their skills to the maximum. We do not have the luxury of having a full nursing staff as in a hospital. Our nurses need to have independent assessment skills," Gary Eubank, RN, MSN, UTMB-CMC, director of nursing, Southern Region, said. The health-care staff must balance their ethical and moral beliefs prior to employment. When inmates enter a Texas Department of Criminal Justice Correctional facility, they receive an extensive physical and a disease screening. "So we know when a patient comes into the medical facility what to do, what personnel protective gear is necessary. However, our nurses are no more at risk working with inmates than they are in other medical facilities," said Mary Gotcher, RN, director of Nursing Northern Division, UTMB-CMC.