The objective of this article is to examine the tensions that exist between care and custody in correctional environments by presenting the (im)possibilities of psychiatric nursing practice within this context. The analysis will be guided by empirical data obtained from a qualitative research conducted in a correctional setting. Semistructured interviews with nurses were conducted and used as the primary source of data for analysis. This article will explore the contextual characteristics of psychiatric nursing practice in correctional settings, describe the alienating effects of this context on nursing practice, theorize nurses’ experience using Festinger’s theory on cognitive dissonance, and, finally, explore how some nurses engage in the reconstruction of their care to counter the effects of working in correctional settings.
AndraK. A., StreetF. S. (1999). Being authentic and being a chameleon: Nurse-patient interaction revisited. Nursing Inquiry, 6, 75–82.
2.
AnnelsM. (1996). Grounded theory method: Philosophical perspectives, paradigm of inquiry, and postmodernism. Qualitative Health Research, 6, 379–393.
3.
BackmanK., KyngäsH. A. (1999). Challenges of the grounded theory approach to a novice researcher. Nursing and Health Sciences, 1, 147–153.
4.
BessinM., LechienM.-H. (2004). La proximité avec le corps des détenus. La participation des prisonniers aux soins [The proximity to the body of prisoners. The involvement of prisoners to care]. In FassinD., MemmiD. (Eds.), Le gouvernement des corps [Government bodies] (pp. 207–236). Paris, France: Edition de l’EHESS.
BurnardP. (1992). The expanded role of the forensic psychiatric nurses. In MorrisonP., BurnardP. (Eds.), Aspects of forensic psychiatric nursing (pp. 139–154). Aldershot, England: Avebury.
7.
BurrowS. (1991a). Special hospital: Therapy vs. custody. Nursing Times, 87, 64–66.
8.
BurrowS. (1991b). The special hospital nurse and the dilemma of therapeutic custody. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 18, 1267–1278.
9.
ChauvenetA., RostaingF., OrlicC. (2008). La violence carcérale en question [Prison violence in question]. Paris, France: Presse Universitaire de France.
10.
CormierB. (1975). The watcher and the watched. Montréal, Canada: Tundra.
11.
FestingerL. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
12.
FisherA. (1995) The ethical problems encountered in psychiatric nursing practice with dangerous mentally ill persons. Scholarly Inquiry for Nursing Practice, 9, 193–208.
13.
FoucaultM. (1994). Histoire de la sexualité: La volonté de savoir [History of sexuality: The will to knowledge]. St-Amand, France: Éditions Tel/Gallimard.
14.
FoucaultM. (1995). Discipline & punish. The birth of the prison (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Vintage.
15.
FrischN. C., FrischL. E. (1998). Psychiatric mental health nursing. Albany, NY: Delmar.
16.
GoffmanE. (1990). Asylums. Essays on the social situation of mental patients and other inmates. New York, NY: Anchor.
17.
GubaE. G., LincolnY. S. (1994). Competing paradigms in qualitative research. In DenzinN. K., LincolnY. S. (Eds.), The Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 105–117). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
18.
HolmesD. (2001). Articulation du contrôle social et des soins infirmiers dans un contexte de psychiatrie pénitentiaire [Articulation of social control and nursing care in the context of prison psychiatry] (Doctoral dissertation). University of Montreal, Canada.
19.
HolmesD. (2005). Governing the captives: Forensic psychiatric nursing in corrections. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, 41, 3–13.
20.
HolmesD., FedermanC. (2003). Constructing monsters: Correctional discourse and nursing practice. International Journal of Psychiatric Nursing Research, 8, 942–962.
21.
HolmesD., MurrayS. (2011). Civilizing the barbarian: A critical analysis of behaviour modification programs in forensic psychiatry settings. Journal of Nursing Management, 19, 293–301.
22.
HolmesD., PerronA., MichaudG., MontuclardL., HervéC. (2005). Scission entre le sanitaire et le pénitentiaire: Réflexion critique sur les (im)possibilités du soin infirmier au Canada et en France [Split between health and prison: A critical reflection on the (im)possibilities of nursing in Canada and France]. Journal de Réadaptation Médicale, 25, 131–140.
23.
HorwitzA. V. (1990). The logic of social control. New York, NY: Plenum Press.
24.
JacobJ. D. (2012). Working in a violent environment: The pitfall of integrating security imperatives into forensic psychiatric nursing. In HolmesD., RudgeT., PerronA. (Eds.), (Re)Thinking violence in health care settings: A critical approach (pp. 315–330). Surrey, England: Ashgate.
25.
JacobJ. D., HolmesD. (2011). The culture of fear: Expanding the concept of risk in forensic psychiatric nursing. International Journal of Culture and Mental Health, 4, 106–115.
26.
LemireG. (1990). Anatomie de la prison [Anatomy of the prison]. Montréal, Canada: Presses de l’Université de Montréal.
27.
LhuilierB., AymardN. (1997). L’univers pénitentiaire: Du côté des surveillants de prison [The prison world: The side of the prison guards]. Paris, France: Desclée de Brouwer.
28.
LincolnY. S., GubaE. G. (2000). Paradigmatic controversies, contradictions, and emerging confluences. In DenzinN. K., LincolnY. S. (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 163–188). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
29.
LudzP. (1973). Alienation as a concept in the social sciences. Current Sociology, 21, 9–42.
30.
LynchV. A. (2006). Forensic nursing science. In HammerR., MoynihanB., PagliaroE. (Eds.), Forensic nursing. A handbook for practice (pp. 1–40). Boston, MA: Jones & Bartlett.
31.
MaeveM. K. (1997). Nursing practice with incarcerated women: Caring within mandated (sic) alienation. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 18, 495–510.
32.
MartinP. M. (2003). Exploring the nature of the nurse-patient relationship in an acute, high security forensic psychiatry unit (Doctoral thesis). La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia.
33.
MartinT., StreetA. F. (2003). Exploring evidence of the therapeutic relationship in forensic psychiatric nursing. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 10, 543–551.
34.
MasonT. (2002). Forensic psychiatric nursing: A literature review and thematic analysis of role tensions. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 9, 511–520.
35.
MasonT., LovellA., CoyleD. (2008). Forensic psychiatric nursing: Skills and competencies: I. Role dimensions. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 15, 118–130.
MasonT., RichmanJ., MercerD. (2006). The influence of evil on forensic clinical practice. In MasonT. (Ed.), Forensic psychiatry. Influences of evil (pp. 327–354). Totowa, NJ: Humana Press.
38.
MayC., (1990). Research on nurse-patient relationships: Problems of theory, problems of practice. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 15, 307–315.
39.
PaichelerG. (1997). Modèles pour l’analyse de la gestion des risques liés au VIH: Liens entre connaissances et actions [Models for the analysis of the management of HIV risk: Links between knowledge and action]. Sciences Sociales et Santé, 15, 39–71.
40.
PailléP. (1994). L’analyse par théorisation ancrée [The grounded theory analysis]. Cahiers de recherché sociologiques, 23, 147–181.
41.
PerronA. (2008). Exploration de la construction identitiaire du détenu par le biaias des discours du personnel infirmier dans un milieu de psychiatrie correctionnelle[Exploration of identity construction of the prisoner through the discourse of nursing staff in an environment of correctional psychiatry] (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Ottawa, Canada.
42.
PerronA., HolmesD., HamonetC. (2004). Capture, mortification, dépersonnalisation: La pratique infirmière en milieu correctionnel [Capture, mortification, depersonalization: Nursing practice in correctional settings]. Journal de réadaptation médicale, 24, 124–131.
43.
Peternelj-TaylorC. (2004). An exploration of othering in forensic psychiatric and correctional nursing. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, 36, 130–146.
44.
Peternelj-TaylorC. (2008). Forensic psychiatric and mental health nursing. In AustinW., BoydM. A. (Eds.), Psychiatric nursing for Canadian practice (pp. 791–804). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
RenzettiC. M., LeeR. M. (1993). Doing research on sensitive topics. London, England: Sage.
47.
RhodesL. A. (2004). Total confinement. Madness and reason in the maximum security prison. Berkeley: University of California Press.
48.
SekulaK., HolmesD., ZouchaR., DesantisJ., OlshanskyE. (2001). Forensic psychiatric nursing. Discursive practices and the emergence of a specialty. Journal of Psychological Nursing, 39, 51–57.
49.
SeniorJ. (1998). Doctors’ orders: The mentally disordered in prison. In MasonT., MercerD. (Eds.), Critical perspectives in forensic care: Inside out (pp. 230–243). London, England: Macmillan.
50.
StarkeyK., McKinlayA. (1998). Deconstructing organization—discipline and desire. In McKinlayA., StarkeyK. (Eds.), Foucault, management and organization theory (pp. 230–241). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
51.
StraussA. L., CorbinJ. (1998). Basics of qualitative research. Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
52.
WelchM. (2005). Pivotal moments in the therapeutic relationship. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 14, 161–165.
