Forensic nursing culture and recovery-oriented practice : a focused ethnography

Providing Recovery-oriented practice in forensic settings is often a contentious issue. This thesis focused on Recovery with how it is influenced by the forensic population and how it is impacted by forensic nurses’ attitudes and practices. Through a focused ethnography, I explored forensic nursing culture in an inpatient secure setting in Alberta, and the relationship with Recovery-oriented practice when working with the Not Criminally Responsible (NCR) population. Understanding the culture of forensic nursing and how forensic nurses experience and perceive Recovery for forensic patients provided insights into how Recovery can exist and how forensic nurses use Recovery-oriented practices to enhance nursing care in secure settings and facilitate successful reintegration back into community care and society. This research adds to the body of knowledge by demonstrating that there needs to be more Recovery-based training for forensic nurses and how the CHIME Recovery processes should be experienced by forensic nurses in order to move forward with implementation of Recovery-oriented practice, change cultural practices to reflect Recovery instead of rehabilitation, and incorporate a better understanding of Offender Recovery. Keywords: forensic nursing culture, recovery, recovery-oriented practice, offender recovery, secure recovery, not criminally responsible