The Emotional Burden of the Correctional Health Care Advanced Practice Nurse

Abstract

This state-of-the-science review highlights the unique experiences of the correctional health care advanced practice nurse and the risks involved with repeated exposure to violent behavior, verbal assaults, and other rigors of working within a correctional facility. This article also investigates the outcomes of these risks such as compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and burnout. As each of these terms is dissected, insight into the correctional health care advanced practice nurse’s daily experience emerges. Very little literature exists on the topic of correctional nursing and the pitfalls of this field; however, all literature that examines these phenomena indicate that innate qualities such as resilience, along with efforts of education and awareness, will empower any advanced practice nurse to endure and overcome the high-risk field of correctional nursing.