For the last twelve months I have been honored to be a part of the American Nurses Association workgroup that is reviewing and revising the Correctional Nurse: Scope and Standards of Practice ^2nd edition. The 3^rd edition is due to be published in book form in late 2019. I was also a part of the 2013 workgroup that reviewed and revised the 2007 edition.  The Scope and Standards of Nursing Practice in Correctional Facilities was the first manual for Correctional Nurses,  written in 1995!  Our current workgroup is very reflective of correctional nursing today. We have representation from jails, prisons, and juvenile programs;  counties and states; the Federal Bureau of prisons; private companies that provide correctional healthcare in many different correctional settings and academia. As a result of this diversity, we have had many enlightening conversations and we believe our 2019 Correctional Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice book truly reflects the multifaceted role of correctional nursing today.

Call for review and feedback

At this posting, the ANA should be posting our DRAFT for public comment around September 13th on the ANA website and I encourage you to take a look and provide feedback. As a correctional nurse, this is your document, and is intended to guide your practice.  It should be in every department as a resource for nursing staff! And I encourage you to get a copy for yourself. (No, the workgroups do not receive anything for the copies sold. We are a 100% volunteer committee.) Funny, I had been in correctional healthcare for about 17 years before I was asked to join the workgroup in 2012, and I never knew that correctional nursing was recognized as a specialty by the ANA! I now inform correctional nurses at every opportunity that they should be proud to be part of this challenging, rewarding, nursing specialty! 

I am curious, did you know that Correctional Nursing is recognized by the ANA? Do you use it in your practice?