Nursing in justice and forensic health care
Nursing in prisons, police custody, immigration centres and other secure care settings
Practice guidance and resources for nursing staff working in a justice and forensic setting. In this section you can also find out about the different types of secure justice service nursing roles.
Nursing Standard ‘Nurse of the year’ past award winner –‘Nursing in a prison’ video
Nursing roles in forensic and justice services
Find out more about the different roles and expertise within criminal justice sector nursing.
Prevention of natural deaths in custody
The RCN Nursing in Justice and Forensic Health Care Forum have been working with the Ministerial Board - Independent Advisory Panel for Deaths in Custody over the past year.
The RCN hosted a stakeholder event in November 2019 at RCN HQ where there was a debate regarding the avoidable natural deaths in prison custody. This event resulted in a report published in September 2020 which sets out key recommendations which it is hoped that stakeholders will respond to in order to ‘put things right’.
The RCN and the forum committee have been heavily involved in this work and IAP/ RCN have written to Ministers to request further discussions on the recommendations and required actions.
View the report: Prevention of natural deaths in custody.
The RCN professional lead, Ann Norman was interviewed by ‘Inside Time’- a weekly online and monthly printed newspaper for prisoners and detainees following their reporting on this work. See: Too many avoidable prisoner deaths.
Related to overview of nursing in justice and forensic health care:
Professional lead for overview of nursing in justice and forensic health care:
Related blogs
- Why nursing in prisons. Warren Stewart - Senior Lecturer, Mental Health Nursing, University of Brighton
- Working in a prison - my journey. Rachel Lovely - Senior Mental Health Nurse, formerly Isle of Wight NHS Trust
Latest RCN bulletin news
- 'Nursing within prisons is varied and complex' - Maggie Wood talks about the challenges and rewards of working in this unique environment (Mar 2021)
