Date of Conferral
9-29-2025
Degree
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
School
Nursing
Advisor
Barbara Gross
Abstract
Correctional nurses deliver care in environments marked by violent incidents, chronic understaffing, and moral distress. These conditions heighten occupational stress, jeopardize patient safety, and accelerate staff turnover, yet few U.S. jails provide evidence-based training in rapid self-regulation strategies. The purpose of this staff education project was to evaluate whether a 2-week curriculum could increase correctional nurses’ knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported skills (KAS) for on-shift mindfulness use. Pender’s health promotion model framed the intervention, Bloom’s taxonomy and Kirkpatrick’s evaluation model informed learning objectives and outcome levels. Five correctional nurses at a large urban jail completed an anonymous 10‑item KAS survey before and after the course. Quantitative data were examined with paired‑sample t tests and Cohens d; qualitative responses were thematically analyzed following Braun and Clarke’s method. Baseline factual knowledge was near the ceiling (M = 4.8/5, 96%) and remained unchanged postintervention, confirming prior familiarity rather than instructional failure. Attitudinal endorsement of mindfulness, however, rose from 3.05 ± 0.55 to 3.70 ± 0.64 on a 5‑point scale (t₄ = 3.50, p = .024, d = 1.56), indicating a large, educationally meaningful shift toward seeing mindfulness as job relevant. Skill enactment data showed sustained use of brief techniques during alarms but highlighted space and device constraints that limited longer practices. Broad adoption of the curriculum may advance positive social change by promoting workforce resilience and health equity within carceral health systems.
Recommended Citation
Emelogu, Victoria Ngozi, "Educating Correctional Nurses on the Use of a Mindfulness Program to Reduce Work Stress" (2025). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 18431.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/18431
