Journal of Medical Toxicology and Clinical Forensic Medicine

Abstract

Universal violence is an origin of the human condition that continues to affect the biological, psychological, and social relationships between the health and justice sciences. Crime-related trauma impacts traditional clinical standards where health care interfaces with the law. Police-registered crimes related to sexual assault and interpersonal violence associated with civil and criminal matters have a clear presence in hospital emergency departments. Due to an existing shortage of skilled forensic physicians, quality forensic services are inadequate to sufficiently address the influx of forensic patients. Forensic nurse examiners (FNE) represent a previously unrecognized resource in the forensic medical sciences to augment clinical forensic services. As a consequence of legal issues involved in the clinical investigation of trauma, the need for forensic specialists in nursing science has been recognized. The American Academy of Forensic Science established forensic nursing as a scientific discipline in 1991 representing an alliance of health and justice services and was recognized as a clinical nursing specialty by the American Association of Nurses Congress of Nursing Practice in 1995.