workforce
Nursing behind bars
I
Are students
prepared
for clinical
placements
in prisons?
Thea van de Mortel
interviewed by
Dallas Bastian
n casting a wider net to find clinical placements
for nursing students, tertiary institutions have
turned to prison health services to guide students
on the job, but are undergraduates prepared for the
experience?
That’s one of the questions researchers unpacked
as part of a study, published in Nurse Education in
Practice, into how students feel about placement in
a prison.
While the majority (89 per cent) of nurses who
participated in the study considered the experience
effective, some felt psychologically ill-prepared for
the physical and emotional aspects of placement.
Nursing Review sits down with lead researcher
associate professor Thea van de Mortel, from Griffith
University, to discuss what students got out of prison
placement, how they felt about the challenges it
presented, and whether we will be seeing more
clinical placements in prison health services in
Australia.
NR: Are clinical placements in prisons common
in Australian undergraduate courses, and will we
be seeing more placements in less traditional
environments in the future?
TM: Certainly, some universities use them, but I
don’t know that it’s widespread. For example, the
four metropolitan prisons we use in Brisbane – to
date, we’ve been the only institution that’s using
them. So there is scope there to increase the
numbers of students going through. Specifically in
nursing, I know that we’re using them, and I know
that in other countries other health disciplines are,
but to the best of my knowledge in these particular
22 | nursingreview.com.au
prisons there aren’t any other health students
going through.
You asked students how they felt about
placement in a prison health service. What did
they have to say?
Most seemed pleased with the placement and felt
it was meeting their learning objectives. They felt
it was giving them opportunities to practise some
vital skills, particularly around health assessment
and medications. When prisoners first arrive at the
prison they go through a health assessment, and the
students took that as a great opportunity to practise
those health assessment skills and to do a lot of
medication rounds and build those skills up.
So they really enjoyed that, and they also enjoyed
the opportunity to develop their skills in therapeutic
communication. They were some of the key things
that they talked about in terms of the skills that
they could practise. They did, I think, enjoy the
environment in many instances in terms of the
broadness of the type of conditions that people
might have and the opportunity to practise their
health promotion skills.
The study also found some students felt
psychologically ill-prepared for the physical
and emotional aspects of their placement. What
brought on these concerns? What were some of
the unexpected or challenging situations students
faced in their placements?
I think for one, there were some concerns from
students around safety. For example, one of
them talked about having to wear a pass around