A FORMER death row nurse says her experience was nothing like what’s shown on TV – she’ll never forget the fear of treating a prisoner who committed the most gruesome crime in her state.
Taccara D. has been a nurse for 13 years with experience in corrections, substance abuse, and psych.
TikTok/aprnbeauty_81Taccara D. is a former death row nurse, who has 13 years of experience in the field[/caption]
GettyShe wanted to become a corrections nurse early in her career and shared a story from one of her first days on the job[/caption]
To celebrate Nurses Week last year, Taccara shared a story from when she first began working as a nurse.
“I really wanted to be a correctional nurse,” she shared in a TikTok last May.
Taccara (@aprnbeauty_81) has nearly 300,000 followers on the platform.
“My state has about 30 prisons and jails collectively and it was one healthcare system,” she explained in the nearly three-minute video.
“So I wanted to get in so bad. I just started applying anywhere…places that were even an hour away from me.”
Taccara achieved her dream and got a job as a death row nurse and was “pumped” for the experience.
“I was like ‘Yo, gonna work on death row!’ My first day orientation I was like, ‘I gotta go see death row.’”
However, when she arrived at the cell block, Taccara said it wasn’t at all like she thought it would be.
“Death row is definitely not like how they make it seem on TV. It’s not at all walking the Green Mile,” she said, referring to the 1999 movie featuring Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan.
“Getting right with Jesus…no, it’s nothing like that.”
She explained that the death row cell block was a small aisle with six cells each with a piece of paper that read: “Death row inmate.”
“It was a little eerie and cold and they were kind of creepy and looking out,” said Taccara.
“I’ll never forget after walking through there, I was terrified.”
One of the inmates she was taking care of was living in the infirmary when he was sentenced to death.
“He did one of the most heinous crimes here in my state and he had just got sentenced to death but he kept trying to kill himself,” said Taccara.
“So that’s why he was in medical, on suicide watch.
She explained that she and another nurse, accompanied by two lieutenants and three officers, had to go in and give the prisoner his meds.
“He had to get everything liquid and you were on camera,” said Taccara. “And I was walking in there, and they make him back up to the cell, put on his cuffs, and then turn around to go sit down.
“I was walking with the tray with all the meds on it…I was shaking so bad that all this Benadryl and everything just…I dropped it.
“I dropped it on camera. I’ll never forget. I was terrified,” she said.
Taccara then asked other nurses to share their own stories on the job.
“My first correction job a CO and inmate got into a physical altercation,” read a comment under Taccara’s video.
“Someone was yelling nurse and I was sitting down until it clicked. I’m ‘the nurse!’ I jumped up so embarrassed!!”
Another person wrote: “Man, one time I was assessing a patient and no one told me he had a fake eye until it popped out hell I didn’t know what to do!”
“I’m in a local jail as a supervisor and your story was great!” wrote a third person. “I have so many I could write a book.”
TikTok/aprnbeauty_81Taccara said she was taking care of a prisoner who committed one of the ‘most heinous’ crimes in her state[/caption]
GettyShe said she was so scared she made a total blunder while treating the man[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
