A Career On The Inside

The Minnesota Department of Corrections is currently responsible for 9,200 adult and 150 juvenile offenders in 10 facilities across the state. Like other Minnesotans, prisoners can get sick, suffer from toothaches or experience mental illness.

Nanette Larson sees to it that sick prisoners get the care they require. "We have a legal responsibility to attend to the healthcare needs of offenders in our custody," says Larson, the director of health services for the Minnesota Department of Corrections.

Community Needs

Like people "on the outside," inmates suffer from a wide variety of illnesses. "Our offender healthcare needs are a lot like those of any community," Larson says.

The department's prisons contain clinics and specialized units that are managed in the same way as other large health systems. The staffing is also similar: physicians, physician assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners, allied health professionals and health information personnel. In addition, dentists, hygienists and dental assistants provide oral health services.

Specialty clinics provide care for prisoners with chronic conditions like HIV, asthma, diabetes and hypertension. Elderly inmates with special health challenges like dementia receive 24-hour nursing care in the geriatric unit at the Minnesota Correctional Facility (MCF)-Faribault. Prisoners who need pre- and post-operative care, hospice services or skilled-nursing care receive it in the transitional care unit at the MCF-Oak Park Heights.

Behavioral healthcare includes specialized treatment programs for sex offenders and chemically dependent inmates. The behavioral health team comprises psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, clinical social workers, psychiatric assistants and counselors.

Careers in correctional healthcare offer good wages, benefits and opportunities for upward mobility. "Several of our clinic directors started out as line staff and were promoted into management positions," Larson says.

Many health professionals are also drawn to the field because they like caring for a challenging, interesting population. "Most offenders have not been good to their bodies, so they often have complex physical conditions," Larson says. "And for people in behavioral health, these are some of the most fascinating patients they'll ever work with."

Contract Work

Not all correctional health staff works for federal, state or local governments. Over 40 percent of healthcare services are contracted to private firms, according to Correctional Medical Services, Inc. (www.cmsstl.com), a company that provides clinical personnel and pharmacy services to prisons and jails across the United States.

Learn More

American Correctional Health Services Association, www.achsa.org.

For career opportunities in the Minnesota Department of Corrections, visit www.doc.state.mn.us

Nancy Giguere is a freelance writer from St. Paul who has written about healthcare since 1995.