May/June 2010

Cover story: When patients are prisoners
RNs working inside Ontario's correctional facilities say it's a job that makes the most of their knowledge.

When Maida Mrakovic arrives for her shift at Mississauga's Credit Valley Hospital, she breezes through the lobby, buys a coffee and muffin and may grab a sandwich for lunch. She's a full-time staff nurse in the general surgical unit, working with a full team of nurses and physicians to help patients - who are often surrounded by family and friends - with everything from thoracic to vascular issues.

About four times a month, Mrakovic heads to her casual job at the Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton. It's just 25 km away from the hospital, but work inside prison walls is a world apart from the usual day at Credit Valley. She leaves her cell phone behind because it's a security risk, and enters the large, grey, pentagon-shaped building. She shows her identification tag to the officer behind the first set of sliding doors. They open. She walks through. They close behind her. It's a process she will repeat six more times before starting her day. Her patients' constant companions are uniformed correctional officers (COs). She admits the first day on the job gave her a shiver.

At 27, Mrakovic is relatively new in her career, still checking out all of the options nursing has to offer. But she believes with some certainty that corrections will eventually become a full-time choice for her. You wouldn't be the first to ask 'why?' Correctional nurses hear the question again and again.

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