Sick call provides an important first level of health care services and a gatekeeper function in which nurses assess inmate patients and determine the level of care needed. Nursing sick call enhances the professional autonomy of nurses and is one of the signature practices that set correctional nursing apart as a specialty. It allows nurses to independently assess patients, develop a nursing diagnosis and a treatment plan, and is an important opportunity to provide inmates with patient education and self-care information. Health assessment is fundamental to nursing practice; virtually all nursing clinical decisions are based on the subjective and objective data collected from patients during assessment. Nursing protocols should assess the patient’s knowledge about their health status and provide patient education specific to the disease addressed by the protocol. Sick call practice places correctional nurses on the frontlines of correctional health care and brings certain ethical dilemmas to the forefront.