Reb, an Advanced Nurse Practitioner at HMP Stafford, shares his unique experiences in prison healthcare and why he loves his job. Discover the diverse challenges and rewards of working in this setting.
In our recent interview, Reb, an Advanced Nurse Practitioner at HMP Stafford, shares about his day as a healthcare professional working in a prison looks like and why he loves his job. He has been a nurse for 30 years.
I start my day at 8am when I go through medication tasks, writing urgent prescriptions, updating records, and clearing queries related to prescriptions of the new patients who were admitted to the Emergency Department the night before. Then I spend some time providing assistance to our patients.
From 9am to 12pm, it’s clinic rush hour! I see patients with all sorts of conditions, some familiar, some unusual. Some patients present with long-term conditions such as diabetes or asthma, and I will prescribe medications, order tests, and develop treatment plans for them. Some conditions might require undifferentiated diagnosis, but our team ensures our patients get the best care.
Around the middle of the day, we have a team meeting to share updates and coordinate care. It lasts about half an hour, and by the end, the entire team knows the status of our patients’ care and the management plans.
Then we break for lunch.
We all sit together during this time and we talk to each other. I think that’s one of the reasons why we’re quite involved in each other’s lives, and we know so much about one another. It is unique to our work environment and helps make us a better team.
The clinic will be open until half past three in the afternoon. In the last half an hour of my day, I do some admin work and make notes.
But my job isn’t just about providing medications to patients! I’m also the prescriber for the substance misuse team. So I see all the patients that are on methadone or other substances. These cases bring diversity to my work and routine.
Apart from clinical responsibilities, I often do the supervision of people that are doing their prescribing course or support the newly qualified prescribers who joined the clinic during their supervision. I’ve also been the supervisor for a pharmacist and three nurses. Even though people are qualified, they need some additional support initially, so I offer that during breaks.
On Fridays, I switch gears and become a mindfulness trainer for the inmates. It’s a popular program that helps them manage stress. They love it and there’s a huge waiting list to get into that.
I am a Professional Nurse Advocate (PNA) too. It’s a Masters level course which Practice Plus Group facilitated. It’s about ensuring the staff’s wellbeing, providing clinical supervision and getting the team together.
I have been a nurse for 30 years and my career in healthcare has spanned across different settings, including university and Accidents and Emergency. This is the best job I’ve ever had by far. I love Practice Plus Group, and I love the prison here: I enjoy catching up with my patients. I really enjoy that continuity as well. It’s a great healthcare model, having one person who you can see over and over who knows you well. It has several benefits to it.
I also appreciate the support for career progression offered here. The training is excellent. They’re responsive. They offer a lot of courses and more. The support offered really helped me upskill, expanding my scope of practice and getting additional qualifications. Practice Plus Group also supported me in applying for the Queen’s Nurse Award.
We’ve got a great team here! We do all sorts of crazy things, like Muddy Marathon for Cancer Research UK, raising our team morale and social responsibility.
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