What is Correctional Nursing?
“the delivery of evidence-based nursing to protect, promote, and optimize health and abilities; prevent illness and injury; facilitate healing; alleviate suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response with care and respect; and advocate for individuals, families, groups, communities and populations under the jurisdiction of the justice system.”
-Scope and Standards of Correctional Nursing Practice (3rd Ed., p. 1)
Care Setting
Nurses care at one time or another for the nearly 1.5 million persons under the jurisdiction of the criminal justice system (The Sentencing Project, 2024).
In addition to a community health service system, there are over 6,000 prisons, jails, detention centers and specialty hospitals in the U.S. (Prison Policy Initiative, 2024).
This is a large system and offers many opportunities and challenges for professional nurses at all levels of licensure.
Correctional Nurse Career Pathway Program- CNCPP©
Earn your credentials as a Ready-to-Practice Correctional Specialty Nurse HERE!
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This content is suitable for students and faculty, LPNs, RNs, and APRNs.
Correctional Nursing, defined by the Scope and Standards of Correctional Nursing Practice (3rd Ed., p. 1):
“is the delivery of evidence-based nursing to protect, promote, and optimize health and abilities; prevent illness and injury; facilitate healing; alleviate suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response with care and respect; and advocate for individuals, families, groups, communities and populations under the jurisdiction of the justice system.”
Correctional Nurse Professional Development Practitioner- CNPDP©
Advanced Practice Nurses can grow their vision as education leaders.
Lead the nation in sustaining and standardizing practice curricula.
Achieve certification as a Professional Development Professional.
The practice of a Correctional Nursing Professional Development Practitioner (CNPDP) is to improve the professional practice and role competence of nurses and other healthcare personnel in carceral settings by facilitating ongoing learning, change, role competence and growth with the intention of improving the correctional population's health through indirect care. As such, this role aligns with and supports the role of correctional nurses.