Working with Dave. Application of Peplau's interpersonal nursing theory in the correctional environment

Achieving therapeutic relationships with forensic patients is dependent upon nurses' awareness of personal needs, reactions to the patient, recognition of their participation in the pattern, the effects of this participation on others, and the changes they needed to make. Nurses have more extensive contact with the forensic patients than other health care professionals. Consequently, the potential exists for nurses--through interpersonal relationship--to have the greatest therapeutic impact or to engage in patterns that replicate pathology-producing situations (Peplau, 1978). The goal is not that nurses be perfect, but that they be aware of imperfections and capable of exploring them.