FORENSICS In Nursing

1. FORENSICSInNursing “Current Trends in Forensic Science” Dr Kithsiri Edirisinghe MBBS MSC MD ( Medical Administration )

2. References Cherry, B. & Jacobs, S. (2008). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, and management. (4th ed.) St. Louis: Mosby. Martin, N. (2009). Forensic nursing: What, who, where. The Kansas Nurse, 84(3), 3-5. Pyrek, K. (2009). Forensic nursing pioneers ponder the future. Retrieved from http://www.forensicnursemag.com/articles/3b1cover.html (2009). Forensic nurse: Job outlook for forensic nursing. Retrieved from http://education-portal.com/articles/Forensic_Nurse:_Job_Outlook_for_Forensic_Nursing.html (2009). Forensic nursing. Retrieved from http://www.mynursingdegree.com/forensic-nursing-certificate-online/ (2009). The forensic nurse. Retrieved from http://www.theforensicnurse.com/

3. What is Forensic Nursing? • Nursing science applied to the law • Investigation/treatment of: • Violence • Abuse • Criminal activity • Traumatic accidents

4. The Forensic Nurse • A nurse (RN) with specialized training in: • Forensic evidence collection • Criminal procedures • Legal testimony expertise • Specialty Roles: • Clinical forensic nurse (CFN) • Sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) • Legal nurse consultant • Forensic psychiatric nurse • Forensic correctional nurse • Forensic gerontology nurse • Nurse attorney • Death investigator/Forensic nurse investigator • Forensic nurse educator

5. History • 1992-1st national convention of sexual assault nurses • International Association of Forensic Nurses (IAFN) • 1996-American Association of Nurses

6. Current Status of Forensic Nursing • New specialty area of interest • Education continuing to evolve • Colleges and universities • Healthcare facilities, correctional facilities, county prosecutors, coroner’s offices, medical examiner’s offices, insurance companies, psychiatric facilities • Disaster and emergency management

7. Job Description • Evaluation of victims of sexual assault • Collect evidence (sexual assault victims and crime scenes) • Interview the victim • Investigate causes of morbidity and mortality • Testify in court

8. Job Qualifications • RN • Entry-level position is sexual assault nurse examiner (certification) • Specialized training • 40 hrs didactics • 40 hrs clinical work • Should be trained in handling and collecting evidence such as hairs, fibers, and swabs of fluid for DNA testing • Tools to be familiar with: • Digital camera • Omnichrome • Coloscope

9. Salary • Varies depending on the part of the country and experience • Starts at $26/hr and can reach as much as $100/hr • On-call rate of $1-4/hr • SANE-1 ½ times base pay • Per case basis: $150-$400

10. Disadvantages Advantages Important resource Challenging and exciting Different specialty areas Make a difference Demanding hrs Challenging Emotional cases

11. Future Trends • Forensic nursing will continue to advance and evolve • New roles and opportunities (increase in the next ten years) • Increasing crime rates

12. Forensics: Pertaining to the Law Forensic Nursing: Application of Nursing to the Law

13. Forensics is not about Dead People IT's about the LAW

14. Living Victims Deserve A Forensic Specialist

16. What is Forensic Nursing? • The application of forensic science, combined with clinical nursing practice as they are applied to public or legal proceedings in the law enforcement arena. • It is the application of forensic aspects of health care combined with biopsychosocial education of the registered nurse in the scientific investigation and treatment of trauma, death, violent or criminal activity, and traumatic accidents within the clinical or community institution (Lynch, 1991).

17. Forensic Nurses • Trauma/ER • SANE/FNE/SART • Nurse Coroners/Forensic Nurse Death Investigators • Nurse Attorneys/Legal Nurse Consultants • Psychiatric & Mental Health • Correctional Health • Domestic Violence

18. 1. ER/Trauma

19. ER/Trauma • Why are they needed • Identification • Care for the Survivor • Care for the Perpetrator • Identification & Collection of evidence • Clothes • Injury and patterns of injury

20. ER/Trauma • Documentation • What we do v. the crime committed • Chain of custody • Measurements in centimeters • Location • Description • Photography

21. 2. SANE/FNE/SART

22. SANE • A registered nurse who has been specially trained to provide comprehensive care to sexual assault patients, who demonstrates competency in conducting a forensic exam and the ability to be an expert witness.

23. Benefits of a SANE TEAM • Willingness • Specialty training • Comprehensive care • Fact based documentation (drop all opinions) • Forensic issue • evidence collection • chain of custody • courtroom testimony

24. Law Enforcement Rape Crisis Medical Response SANE/RN Physician ANP PA Crime Lab Counseling Services Forensic Scientist CPS/APS Prosecution SART-Sexual Assault Response Team

25. Together Everyone Accomplishes More Don’t tell other members of the TEAM how to do their jobs. Together we can make offenders want to relocate.

26. Provide victim centered services Provide compassionate care Provide community awareness Where to come How we will treat you Encourage reporting of Sexual Assaults Encourage successful apprehension and prosecution of guilty offenders Aid in the identifying of false reporting SART

27. Sexual Assault • Every 45 seconds a women is Sexual Assaulted. • 1:5 Women • 1:10-20 Men • Screen ALL Trauma Patients (LOC, clothing)

28. Sexual Assault Exam • Sexual Assault is rarely suspected unless an outcry is made. • History from Patient (to diagnosis & treat) • Head-to-toe Assessment • Detailed Genital Exam • Collection of forensic evidence • Treatment for injuries, STD’s & pregnancy

31. DFSA • 1/3 offenders convicted-alcohol • 40% of 2,366 survivors urine-alcohol • Multiple drugs: Ethanol, Benzo’s (valium, xanax, restoril, klonopin, rohypnol) Barbiturates, GHB, Ketamine, Chloral Hydrate, Muscle Relaxants, Opiates, Sedative Antidepressants • Challenges: • Drugs uses • Reporting • Collection of evidence • Lab methodologies • Dosages

32. JPS Health Network Statistics

33. 1 hour 80 Women

34. 3. Nurse Coroners/Forensic Nurse Death Investigators

35. Nurse Coroner/Death Investigation • The coroner is a public official who is primarily charged with the duty of determining how and why people under the coroner’s jurisdiction die (these jurisdictions vary form state to state, but typically include sudden, unexpected, unexplained, or traumatic death).

36. Nurse Coroner/Death Investigation • A licensed nurse who carries out the duties of a death investigator in accordance with the performance standards and procedures established under the medical examiner or coroner’s system of death investigating and the jurisdictional standards of practice.

37. Nurse Coroner/Death Investigation • Nurses have the educational background to understand exactly what causes death and what happens to a body after death occurs. Death may be a criminal event, but it is always a medical event. Unlike law enforcement who look at the deceased and want to know, “Who killed you?” nurses look at a dead body and ask, “Why are you dead?” If it is determined that the death was due to criminal cause then it is law enforcement’s job to determine who. Who better to determine the manner of death than medical personnel?

38. Nurse Coroner/Death Investigation • Manner of death is the circumstances in which the cause of death arose, i.e. natural, accident, homicide, suicide, and undetermined. In some cases manner of death may be difficult to determine and may appear accidental (i.e. in a suicide without a note). Forensic nurses possess the skills necessary to complete a psychological autopsy and interpret the subtle nuances of medications, health history and circumstances surrounding suspicious deaths.

39. Nurse Coroner/Death Investigation • Mechanism of death is the physiologic derangement or biochemical disturbance incompatible with life, which is initiated by the cause of death, e.g. cardiac arrest. Forensic nurses are well educated in physiology and are therefore prepared to accurately distinguish between the cause and the physiologic mechanism of death.

40. 4. Nurse Attorneys/Legal Nurse Consultants

41. Goals • To establish a leadership role in health care policy making. • To influence health care social policy, health care legislation and nursing practice acts. • To educate the public about health law issues. • To educate the public about nurse attorneys. • To educate nurses about the legal system. • To represent the public; client advocate.

42. Nurse Attorneys/Legal Nurse Consultants • Nurses want to make fundamental change in the way healthcare is delivered, and recognizing that it needs to occur through legislation and political process is a big piece of it. • Like nurses, attorneys must interact with people who are vulnerable, who have been injured or traumatized, and who need assistance to regain their wholeness. • Client advocacy is the skill nurses bring to the profession.

43. 5. Psychiatric and Mental Health

44. Issues and Goals • The enhancement of appropriate care for the severe and persistently mentally ill. • The integration of psychiatric and addictions treatment. • Strategies for promotion of mental health and prevention of psychiatric disorders. • The provision of appropriate care within the criminal justice system. • The equitable provision of care for children and adolescents.

45. Issues and Goals • Ensuring access to care for older adults and members of minority groups. • Advocacy for access to psychiatric-mental health services as readily as access to medical services. • The development of an evidence-based approach to teaching nursing students about psychiatric-mental health nursing, at both the undergraduate and the graduate levels of education.

46. 6. Correctional Health

47. Correctional Health Nurses Correctional healthcare is a unique specialty area. Goals: Facilitate an improved working relationship between the private sector and the correctional staff in jails, adult and juvenile detention centers, prisons to meet the needs of the inmate patient. Promote correctional healthcare as part of the public health continuum.

48. 7. Domestic Violence

49. Intimate Partner Violenceis an Epidemic

50. The Surgeon General of the United States recently declared: “Domestic Violence is the number one health issue facing the country today”