Incarcerated Women In Prisons

Background: Women who are incarcerated while pregnant, receive no birthing education while in most prisons in the United States. In many states, incarcerated women in labor are transported to the nearest birthing center and are shackled to the labor bed with one armed guard inside the room and another outside the door. They often labor alone because they are not allowed to have a support person. The nurse on duty, is the only form of support they depend upon. Unfortunately, evidence indicates that many of the nurses have a punitive attitude toward the incarcerated patient, resulting in inadequate care.
This qualitative study is based on a community-based assignment given to senior nursing students in a perinatal nursing course, that gave them the opportunity to meet and interact with incarcerated women around topics related to perinatal care. Although students thought …show more content…
Method: Students over the span of five years, provided written responses to reflective questions regarding what they learned from presenting one topic for two hours with a group of incarcerated women. Using Critical Reflective Inquiry for qualitative analysis, the narrative data findings indicated that students changed their perception of incarcerated women from some form of ‘evil and dangerous’ to an awareness that the women were human beings and deserved compassionate nursing care. Additionally, the students vowed to become advocates for better treatment in the prison.
Conclusion: Nursing student engagement with incarcerated women was successful in changing the students’ attitude that vilified incarcerated women. More research is needed to follow-up with the student participants who are now out in the workplace, to explore how the experience impacted/ impacts their nursing practice