Abstract
Nurses have historically “ministered” to vulnerable populations. Prior to the late 1960s, few nurses gave much thought to working with offenders in correctional environments. Nurses have slowly embraced a multitude of professional roles in their quest to provide offenders with quality nursing care. The application of the nursing process is greatly influenced by the correctional milieu. Accepting the challenge to provide nursing care in environments where health care delivery is not the primary goal leads to a myriad of complex ethical dilemmas for the nursing profession.
Correctional nursing has been described as collaborative and interdisciplinary by its very nature. However collaboration between nurses, health care professionals, and correctional staff, has often been left to chance, leading to animosity and role confusion in practice. Nurses represent the largest group of health care professionals practicing in correctional systems, yet little is known about who they are, what challenges they experience, or how they care for those in custody.
Correctional nursing has undergone significant transformations in role development in recent years. Contemporary practice represents a gold mine of opportunities for the accumulation of knowledge through explorations in practice, education, theory, and research. It is through such developments that correctional nursing will continually grow and evolve in response to the changing circumstances in society.
Purpose of Presentation: A brief historical overview of correctional nursing as a specialty area of practice will be presented. Two themes dominate this discussion: the conflicting convictions of custody and caring, and, the articulation of a professional identity within the correctional milieu.
Learning Objectives:
This presentation will assist the participant to:
· Examine the contextual factors that impact on correctional nursing as a specialized area of nursing practice. · Explore the impact of collaborative and interdisciplinary practice on professional role development for correctional nurses.
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