Recorded presentation

Anna Marie Payne, RN, EdD, Department of Nursing, Boise State University, 1919 University Dr., Boise, ID 83706, 208-4263845, apayne@boisestate.edu

Community Health faculty are often challenged with identifying quality clinical experiences for meeting course outcomes for community assessment projects. A variety of settings, agencies, and populations are utilized, depending on the community in which the program resides. A baccalaureate nursing program in the intermountain western part of the US partnered with colleagues in prison health to see if community assessment projects could be carried out within a corrections environment. If such an affiliation worked, several outcomes could be met: enhancement of the primary and secondary health care aspects of the prison health system, and exposure of the graduates to another area of practice. In Fall 2003, 20 community health nursing students completed the required community assessment project at both woman’s and men’s minimum security prisons. Post experience assessment of the students indicated an overwhelmingly positive feeling on the part of students about the value of the experience. Most recommended continuing to have students affiliate at correctional facilities for learning. Most felt that their biases and stereotypes of inmate populations had been affected by the experience. Prison health care and security professionals expressed positive attitudes toward the experience. The information they were given in the student’s reports will definitely influence their programs for prison health.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the process of evaluating a prison setting for inclusion as a clinical learning site.
• Appreciate the extent that a corrections setting experience positively affects the biases of future nurses with regard to this vulnerable population
• Describe the outcomes/benefits to the prison health care system

Keywords: Correctional Health Care, Nursing Education

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation