Prison nursing essay

In traditional nursing, a nurse may be with a patient for a few weeks. In correctional nursing, a nurse could be caring for a patient for years depending on the length of their sentence (Gerber, 2012). In some cases the correctional nurse may serve as a primary provider for these patients in the absence of a physician.

One of the biggest moral and ethical issues nurses face while working in the prison system is the understanding that every person inside the correctional facility has done something that deemed them a danger to society in some way or another.

“A lot of inmates haven’t had care, so you can enact meaningful change just by providing your compassionate care as a nurse. Their health literacy is pretty low, and a lot of them are very appreciative of the help that you give them, the compassion that you show them, the empathy.

A nurse’s role within the prison system is very different from a nurse’s role in traditional bedside nursing. In traditional nursing, a nurse may be with a patient for a few weeks. In correctional nursing, a nurse could be caring for a patient for years depending on the length of their sentence (Gerber, 2012).