I have a
guest post to the ScienceSpheres blog today from Sarah Clark, a writer for
forensicnursing.org. Sarah became interested in
forensic nursing after taking health and biology classes in high school and has
considered herself a perpetual student of science ever since. Sarah is
especially interested in writing about medicine, law and criminology in order
to educate others about the field.
Forensic nurses are often the front
line responders to victims of sexual assaults, collecting critical evidence
while at the same time helping victims cope with the trauma.
To learn more about the critical field of forensic nursing, visit
Sarah's Post:
According to the International Association of Forensic Nurses, a sexual assault occurs every two
minutes in the United States. “Nearly one in five women surveyed said they had
been raped or had experienced an attempted rape at some point," according
to the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, which was begun in
2010. In these situations it is the job of the forensic nurse to offer not only
their expertise, but also compassion and advocacy. A forensic nurse is a
registered nurse who has been trained not only in the biophysical aspects of
nursing, but in matters of legality. As a result, forensic nurses are
frequently tasked with collecting evidence such as fluids, hair and fiber, but
may also assist in death investigations and court testimonies.
Generally, most forensic nurses
are trained in specialities such
as wound patterns, which include identifying bite marks, bruise arrays or
determining what weapon caused an injury. As forensic nurses often attend the
victims of sexual assault, they are also intimately trained in the use of rape
kits. There are several types of kits, ranging from the Sexual Assault Forensic
Evidence (SAFE) kit, The Sexual Offense Evidence Collection (SOEC) kit, to the
Physical Evidence Recovery Kit (PERK) kit.
These kits allow a forensic nurse
to collect and preserve important evidence that will be used at trial. The International Association of Forensic Nurses explains that the kits are made up
of small boxes, sheets, bags, swabs, tubes and microscopic slides that are used
in the preservation of bodily fluids such as saliva and semen. The special
sheets are used to catch any evidence from the victim’s body, while the bags
and envelopes the forensic nurse uses are used to preserve hair from the
victim’s head as well as pubic hair. In addition there are swabs the forensic
nurse uses to collect bodily fluid from the cheeks, lips, anus and thighs of
the assault victim. The forensic nurse will also take blood samples, nail
cuttings (or “pickings”) to retrieve potential evidence from beneath the
victim’s fingernails. There is also a special comb employed to collect any hair
or fiber from the victim’s own pubic hair.
Forensic nurses are also often
required to spend an additional 400 hundred hours of training that includes
everything from riding along with police officers, visiting violent crime
scenes, to being trained in forensic photography to document the violence
perpetrated on the victim. This ensures that they are well trained and have
expertise in the following situations: domestic violence, sexual assault and
the prevention of it, sexual violence in tribal communities, elder abuse, the
prevention of elder abuse, death investigations and mass disasters.
As the site Forensic Nursing points out, forensic nurses are
professionals who combine medicine, science, law, and most importantly,
advocacy for the patient who experienced a trauma. A patient who comes in to an
emergency room having been assaulted is in need of care on both the physical
and emotional level, it is the forensic nurse who has been trained to provide
these services. However, a forensic nurse's responsibility for a patient
doesn't end when the patient leaves the hospital doors, it is often a forensic
nurse’s job to testify in court cases to convict the perpetrators of the crime
using the evidence they collected and documented.
