[An ethnographic look at the activity of nurses in a remand centre]

The purpose of this article is to describe and analyse the work of nurses practising in the prison environment when distributing treatments. Based on an ethnographic approach, observations of healthcare spaces in prisons and interviews were carried out with health professionals and sick prisoners. The analysis of the distribution of treatments is an interesting activity to highlight the role of nurses in a confined space. It appears that their work is punctuated by surveillance activities, in particular on the cell threshold where opportunities for interaction that shape the status of prisoner and/or patient play out. The therapeutic relationship is difficult to establish and often remains tainted by suspicion, which partly prevents the deployment of nursing care.