Date of Conferral

12-23-2025

Date of Award

December 2025

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Maria Revell

Abstract

This Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) educational intervention targeted correctional nurses and aimed to enhance their knowledge of mental health crisis management. Correctional environments often lack training for managing mental health emergencies, which can negatively impact safety. The goal was to increase correctional nurse knowledge of mental health emergency management. The guiding question was whether an educational intervention would increase correctional nurses’ knowledge of mental health crisis management by a minimum of 20% following a structured, evidence-based educational session. A pretest and posttest design was used in the project. A total of 20 participants completed a pretest, posttest and program evaluation. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and normalized gains. Mean scores increased from 47.68 on the pretest to 67.68 on the posttest representing a 39% gain exceeding the 20% objective. Project results confirmed that an educational intervention can enhance nurse knowledge of crisis management. These results aligned with evidence from similar interventions, such as basic mental health education for nurses, which has shown meaningful competency gains in pretest and posttest designs. Based on these outcomes, it was recommended that the correctional institution incorporate the training tI need hrough regular, structured modules and integrate it into onboarding programs to strengthen nurse readiness, promote organizational safety, and enhance equitable mental health care for incarcerated individuals. The project’s outcomes support positive social change by fostering a safer correctional environment, advancing equitable access to quality mental health care, and promoting a culture of diversity, inclusion, and respect within nursing practice.

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