Corrections Nursing and the Community

ections Nursing and the Community
A 7 page paper discussing how the correctional facility nurse can have effect in the local community. The US penal system guarantees appropriate health care to prison inmates. US Supreme Court decisions have determined that withholding any medical treatment where there is urgent need constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment,” which of course is not allowed by the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution or by the American character. Providing nursing service within the prison community offers distinct challenges, but it also offers opportunities that otherwise might never be available to health care providers. Prisons often hold individuals that public health professionals have difficulty locating; extending public health screening to the correctional setting can have direct benefit both within the prison and in the local community when individual inmates are released. Includes an outline. Bibliography lists 6 sources.