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Abstract: 

When our regular sick call nurse quit, I thought I’d have to fight hordes of senior RNs clamoring to take on her position. Cumberland County Jail is a corrections facility with a population somewhere in the vicinity of 500 inmates on nine pods (two smaller and seven larger ones). Triaging out on the pods and utilizing nursing protocols appeared to me to be the epitome of interesting work. I really wanted to go out among the jail population, work with the inmates’ myriad medical, dental, and psychiatric problems and fix these problems wherever I could. When the dust settled and I had finally experienced the sick call regimen, however, I found I had leapt blindly into the chasm of frenzied overwork— alone. I soon discovered why nobody wanted this job; our sick call procedures were very disorganized and time consuming.

Keywords: Trivial Complaints, Committee for Quality Improvement, Nursing Protocol

Affiliations:  1: Cumberland County Jail.