“[It] does harden a person working in such a stressful environment”: U.S. Correctional Nurses Share Spillover Effects of Their Work

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Forensic Nurs
• Personal Author:
  Keller, Elizabeth ; Boch, Samantha ; Davis, Kermit G. ; Gillespie, Gordon L. ; Hittle, Beverly M.
• Description:
  Background:
  
  The U.S. makes up 4.4% of the world’s population but nearly a quarter of the world’s incarcerated population. Despite caring for nearly 2 million incarcerated persons and managing their unique needs, little is known about how this work spills over and affects the nurses who work in correctional settings.
  
  Study Objective:
  
  This descriptive study aimed to a) examine write-in answers regarding correctional nurse perceptions of how their work impacts their health and their home lives, and b) to explore correctional nurse responses for how to improve the work environment to better support their wellbeing.
  
  Method:
  
  The researchers compiled and analyzed qualitative data from a cross-sectional study where U.S. correctional nurses (n=270) completed an online survey. Manifest content analysis was used to analyze optional write-in data.
  
  Results:
  
  Approximately 41% (n = 111) of participants answered qualitative questions. Participants were primarily White (77.3%) and Non-Hispanic or Latino (88.7%), working in prisons (65.8%), and employed by the state (63.8%) as Registered Nurses (70%). Three major themes emerged: 1) personal impact: increased stress and burnout, overwhelming work hours, emotional and physical effects; 2) social relationships and family impacts: withdrawn, strained homelife, uncertainty; and 3) need for change: improved staffing, reduced mandatory overtime, and better support from management.
  
  Conclusions:
  
  Correctional organizations may consider ways to support the wellbeing of their nurses through adequate staffing, flexible scheduling, decreased mandatory overtime, and hiring effective nurse managers as key members of the correctional team.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Adult Burnout, Professional Cross-Sectional Studies Female Humans Male Middle Aged Nursing Staff Occupational Stress Prisons Qualitative Research Surveys And Questionnaires United States Workplace

  More +
• Keywords:
  Correctional Nursing Family Life Forensic Nursing Physical Health Spillover Effect Work Stress
• Source:
  J Forensic Nurs. 20(3):185-194
• Pubmed ID:
  38488400
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC11333190
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  T42 OH008412/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/ ; T42 OH008432/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/ ; T42OH008432/ACL/ACL HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  20
• Issue:
  3
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ed831e887d6ca7c5d582da23ee7d510fd05b02f8f4a12c3d519e69bf7e7ff28d8ccc2297df80f75d8561ab8a3ec91ce7d5cb563c821b6537040f43ad9acab221
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/160346/cdc_160346_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 344.91 KB ]