I really enjoy meeting our members who work in justice and forensic settings. To many people, this means nurses and healthcare support workers who work in prison healthcare, police custody and secure mental health settings, however the scope of justice and forensics is much broader.

I feel compelled to share my reflections on my most recent conversations with colleagues out in a new practice area for nurses - those who are working in the community, in collaboration with probation services.

A pilot scheme has been taking place this year, where practice nurses have been working alongside their probation service colleagues to support the healthcare needs of people on probation in the community. This work uses a neighbourhood health approach where services are co-located and effective links built with local inclusion health GP practices. This means that whilst there are common core expectations for partnership working, the model of delivery is locally determined and based on the needs of the population.

You can read more detail about the pilot on The Guardian. 

 What it means in practice is that people who come to their probation appointment to see their officer, can now also see a nurse, who is able to support from a health perspective. This might be through signposting to other services, referring onwards, completing health checks, providing health promotion advice, supporting with medication management, advocating, or simply providing a space where patients can be listened to and heard, without judgment.

I anticipate that the benefits of providing healthcare at this point in the system will clearly be wide reaching, where nurses impact on people's health, which in turn could reduce reoffending. A formal evaluation of the pilot will take place in due course; however, this pilot has got me thinking about what nursing really means in justice settings.

As the Professional Lead for Justice and Forensic Healthcare, I contacted these nurses to find out more about their role and their work, and to hear about their own personal experiences of working alongside probation officers, caring for people on probation.

I heard about supporting with people with the management of addictions to providing primary mental health care, to identifying people with undiagnosed hypertension and diabetes.

One of our probation nurse colleagues told me:

“I have sat with some of the most broken people I have ever met. Being allowed into those conversations is a privilege. When there is nothing in your hands except the person in front of you, it becomes clear how much of nursing is not only about what we do—but who we are. You meet people at their most vulnerable. In those moments, how we listen, how we respond and how someone leaves that interaction matters just as much as the clinical care we provide. Who we are leaves an imprint. But it exposes something justice nursing has always recognised: relationship is not an optional extra in care. It is the work."

This has stayed with me as I begin to think about how nursing in this setting is clearly about building trust, managing relationships with clear boundaries and remaining patient centred. Seems to me that our colleagues working in probation services are providing truly holistic patient centred care as part of a multi-professional team, where the impact is not just on the patient, but potentially on wider society.

This really is a great example of what one of my Australian prison nurse colleagues, Jo Burton, calls ‘Social Justice Nursing’.

Caring for the most socially disadvantaged and vulnerable groups of people in our society. These nurses are clearly making a difference, on many levels.