Results suggest that nurse practitioner models can be successfully integrated into a prison setting and could provide a nursing career pathway.

No abstract

The nurse practitioner (NP) role presents opportunities to improve access to care for the management of those in prisons, including telephone consultations with the nursing team after hours. This qualitative study used semistructured interviews with prison nurses to gain insights into the role and capability of NPs to provide telephone advice and direction within an after-hours prison health model of care. Three main themes emerged: value and capability, nursing team, and safety of the on-call model. This study adds to our understanding of the capability of the NP in the prison setting and the value of an on-call model of care within a primary team structure.