Correctional Nursing Essay

Correctional nurses are within a larger subcategory of community health nursing where the goal is to preserve, protect, promote, and maintain the client’s health. The difference between the two is the roles each nurse has within the surrounding environment. Correctional nursing practice focuses on providing “direct care within the unique and distinct environment of the criminal justice system” (Knox & Schoenly, 2013, p.1). Correctional nurses contribute to one of the biggest professional healthcare groups that the Canadian Correctional Services employ. Roughly there are over “750 nurses that will provide strategic advice, give guidance to the regional offices, and provide physical or mental health services to institutes, hospitals, and psychiatric

This encompasses a variety of care services that the nurse will incorporate into care for the inmate. Often the inmates have poorer health than people in the community due to inadequate access to healthcare. It becomes the nurse’s responsibility to manage these vulnerabilities and if not, refer inmates to other healthcare professionals or services/programs where the inmate can receive health care that they would not have sought or received outside of the prison (College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta, 2017). Some of the care services a nurse will provide for the inmate is wound care, disease prevention, medication administration, mental health interventions, advocating for the inmate, and collaborating with interprofessional teams to give the inmate access to resources needed to improve care (Stanhope, Lancaster, Jessup-Falcioni, & Viverais-Dresler, 2012, p.86). It is important to focus on the inmate’s rehabilitation so that the inmate can have a successful reintegration into the