Forensic Nurse

Chapter One Who Is a Forensic Nurse? Saturday night. The bars are full. So is the emergency room. The usual suspects jam the cubicles, overflowing into the halls: a brawl victim with a broken h∧ a baby with a high fever; a truck driver who complains of dizziness; a man, claiming to hear voices, who has stabbed his sister; the police are on their way in with the second of two rape victims and a DOA (dead on arrival). Gunshot wounds, stabbings, and drug overdoses are common here, in this large metropolitan hospital. One victim, a walk-in patient, is a young woman in a blood-spattered dress, bruises covering her face and body. She says she fell down a staircase in her home. The admitting physician, an intern, interviews her briefly. Assisted by a nurse, he examines her and orders X-rays. He finds no life-threatening injuries but does observe evidence of earlier abrasions and contusions. Visibly upset and nervous, the patient explains them away, saying they were from tripping over her child's toy, and other household accidents. With at least a dozen patients waiting for him and ambulances bringing in more, the intern treats the woman's cuts and discharges her. Is it possible that, under the pressure of a crushing caseload, he inadvertently released a victim of domestic violence without taking time for the appropriate follow-up? Had the assisting nurse been a forensic nurse, there would have been little chance of that. In fact, many patients in the emergency room have one thing in common: They are cases for the forensic nurse. Any time a nurse treats a victim of a criminal act or someone suspected of committing one, the survivor of a catastrophic accident, or any other victim of a bodily injury, living or dead, where liability may be involved, she* is involved in a forensic case, one that requires investigation beyond the medical. The forensic nurse (FN) is the new detective on the block. She is law enforcement's secret weapon. The expertise of a forensic nursea unique combination of medical skill, legal knowledge, and criminologymakes her input increasingly more valuable in the investigation of crimes. "Forensic nursing" is a relatively new term and has been formally accepted as a specific area of the nursing profession only recently, after it was recognized by the American Association of Nurses in 1996. Forensic nursing has quickly become one of the newest medical specialties, although nurses have been contributing to forensics for centuries. Forensic nurses are the link between the health-care profession and the criminal-justice system. In most cases, their expertise is available at the point of first contactthe door to the emergency room. Forensic nurses have been trained to identify the weapon consistent with the patient's injury; to interview victims in order to get the fullest and most accurate story; and to recognize, collect, and preserve evidence. They have developed the healthy skepticism that enables them to assess the validity of accounts from both victim and suspect. Such specialists are valuable liaisons between the law enforcement and the medical profession, and, unlike many medical professionals, they have the training and experience to testify effectively as expert or actual witnesses. Like Moliere's bourgeois gentleman surprised to learn that he has been speaking prose all his life, many in the profession have often served as forensic nurses in the course of their duties without being aware that they were doing just that. From the moment they first entered nursing school, they were warned that anything they did or said to or about the patient could wind up in court. (Back then, not many students looked forwardStevens, Serita is the author of 'Forensic Nurse', published 2006 under ISBN 9780312356125 and ISBN 0312356129.