With a career in healthcare, meaning comes in many forms. Fulfillment can become a sentiment of purpose, and mission can define how we do our jobs.
At NaphCare, our mission is clear: to improve and save lives in corrections through innovation and excellence.
“So long as there is a patient in front of me, I don’t need to know if it’s an inmate or somebody from home. I’m going to help this person get better.”
Correctional healthcare likely isn’t the career most people would consider fulfilling, but it is hard to find a NaphCare clinician that said a career in correctional healthcare was anything but fulfilling. For some it’s personal, for many it’s passion, empathy, and a devotion to caring for people as they are, where they are.
Jane Kilolong, a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner in Forsyth County, NC embodies what it looks like to find purpose in your work. She understands what it means to identify the mission and put it into action.
“So long as there is a patient in front of me, I don’t need to know if it’s an inmate or somebody from home. I’m going to help this person get better.”
For Jane, the person comes first.
The reality that a jail can be the first place someone gets real care was also a topic that surfaced in nearly every conversation. Many of our patients have never had consistent healthcare previously. They arrive unmedicated but re-enter their communities stabilized, and that matters to our clinicians just as much as it does to the patient and their families.
Kenya Lewis, the Health Services Administrator at Hamilton County Justice Center in Cincinnati, OH, has run into former patients on occasion who are proud to tell her that they’ve accomplished since leaving the facility.
Some obtained their GED. Others enrolled in college courses.
She celebrates with them in the moment and later acknowledges that it’s because of the care she provided to them. These men are experiencing positive achievements in their lives and therefore in their communities. These are the moments that make correctional healthcare more than just a place to report to every day for work. Kenya stated, “I don’t have any sons, and I treat these patients like they’re my sons,”. It’s personal for her and many others, too.
Sarah Jackson, the Director of Nursing (DON) at Hamilton County Justice Center, shared an emergency response that made a lasting impression on her. “I enjoy helping people at their lowest point in life,” she says, “Bringing somebody back when they’re almost gone really shows you how much of a difference you make.” Those moments can be profound. But just as often, clinicians pointed to the quieter side of correctional healthcare—the moments that may never make headlines but can change the trajectory of a person’s life.
Shona Farrish, a Dependent Mental Health Professional in Forsyth County, reflected back on a patient whose care team continued to visit check on him even after he’d completed the mental health program.
The team understood that his needs extended beyond what was documented in his chart.
“Outside of medication, outside of therapy, he needed social support. It was something he had never had before,” she said. “That did wonders for him.”
At NaphCare, our clinicians are given flexibility to blaze a trail and act on a need when they see it.
“Treat them as if that’s your family member in need. Just treat them as humans, because that’s what they are.“ says Felicia Griffith, the Health Services Administrator at Forsyth County.
None of this makes the days easier. But it is the answer, almost unanimously, to why they stay.
Are you a healthcare worker looking for work that matters? Explore careers at NaphCare.
