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The supervision of mentally disordered offenders at risk of harm to themselves or others is universally practised, but there is little research evidence in the literature as to how, in what circumstances, with which patients, to what end and with what results for the patient and/or staff. This article reviews the available evidence on the practice and calls for evidence based guidelines for the role inherited by nurses to inform effective practice. It concludes:• empirical evidence is lacking on the supervision of mentally disordered offenders as an effective nursing intervention• there is evidence of ambiguity as regards psychiatric nursing interventions• supervision of mentally disordered offenders is subject to covert and inconsistent practice• there is a need for research on which to base training, skill mix decisions and the general management of supervision.

The study aimed to identify occupational stressors and measure experiences of clinical burn‐out among a group of mental health nurses and occupational therapists in a medium secure service. All the nursing staff (n=115) and occupational therapists (n=9) on three wards in a medium secure hospital were asked to partake in the study, and to complete a modified version of the Psychiatric Nurse Occupational Stress Scale (PNOSS), the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and a demographic questionnaire designed for the study.Results from the PNOSS revealed that organisational issues elicited the greatest stress and were most strongly related to high burn‐out scores, identified by the MBI. Limited resource and staff conflict were also associated with stress and burn‐out. Patient care had a relatively small impact. MBI findings were that a substantial proportion (54%) were experiencing high burn‐out in relation to emotional exhaustion.