Forensic Nurse : The New Role of the Nurse in Law Enforcement

From Publishers Weekly
The author, a registered nurse and mystery writer (Bagels for Tea), does an excellent job of conveying the importance of an emerging medical specialty. Because forensic nurses—described by Stevens as "law enforcement's secret weapon," with a "unique combination of medical skill, legal knowledge, and criminology"—are often first on the scene of a crime or in an emergency room, they are in a unique position to collect evidence regarding accidents, alleged sexual assault, spousal abuse and other violent incidents. Stevens details how forensic nurses are trained to preserve and interpret evidence that physicians may overlook. A sexual assault nurse examiner, for example, assists alleged rape victims with a careful physical examination, an in-depth interview and emotional support. Stevens shows how savvy FNs deal with physicians who resent forensic nurses, viewing them as encroaching on their territory (she suggests telling the doc, " 'I would love to have you do this exam... the whole six hours of interviewing... and doing the evidence collection.' See how quickly they back out"). Drawing on case histories, Stevens describes how forensic nurses are trained to remain objective, serve as legal witnesses and work with law enforcement. She also highlights the problems these skilled nurses face, such as inadequate compensation. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Thanks to the current popularity of CSI (crime scene investigator) TV shows, everyone knows that whenever a cause of death is questionable, evidence at the scene can determine it and, if it is incriminating, identify the perpetrator. Stevens notes that even a person's body, dead or alive, can also be a crime scene. But while a dead body is available to the forensic pathologist or coroner, a live body can leave a crime scene, get to an emergency room, and verbally deny a crime has been committed. In an ER, harried doctors, rightly focusing on lifesaving, may overlook important evidence. A specially trained member of a profession new as of 1992, forensic nursing, however, can home in on clues bearing witness to a crime. Drawing upon true stories of rape, child abuse, automobile accidents, workers' compensation claims, and criminal psychiatric institutions, Stevens exposes the wide variety of situations in which forensic nurses assist law enforcement and victim. Donna Chavez
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
Serita Stevens has published many books, from mystery novels to a description of poisonous plants. She also has long been a nurse, and it is that profession that sent her to learn more about what a nurse could do when one of her cases seemed to have a criminal or illegal side. "SleuthRN" on the Web led her to the International Association of Forensic Nurses (IAFN) and that started her off on her specialty as a forensic nurse. She took the courses that gave her training in law and medicine, learning that the number of cases that came under the umbrella of forensic is a great deal larger than she had imagined: if there is any legal aspect at all, forensics play a part. Insurance? Possible liability? Workman's compensation? All these and more join the more obvious criminal or suspected criminal cases in having "forensic" connotations.

But what does the forensic nurse know and do that other well-trained nurses and even most doctors do not? Recognizing a possible forensic situation is just the beginning. Forensic nurses are trained to know when to bring in law enforcement, how to treat the patient so as to learn the full story, how to present the findings to doctors and detectives. They learn to recognize possible evidence and preserve it properly. They have particular skills in spotting details that are overlooked by those who are without medical knowledge that is coupled with law. A forensic nurse is skillful with special equipment. They photograph evidence, and may find such evasive clues as nearly invisible marks that an automobile's bumper leaves on the victim's clothing, and they know how to question a fearful child to get accurate information. They are also trained to give evidence in a court case, since nurses are almost inevitably called upon as the first witness to see the patient when he or she is brought into the emergency room, a requirement that often terrifies someone without experience or training.

In fascinating informal case histories that read like stories in a novel, Stevens describes all these and many more aspects of the forensic nurse's work. Each individual case looks at the valuable "extras" these nurses bring to their medical specialty. In one case early in the book Stevens even walks us through the necessarily several-hour examination of a young female victim of sexual assault, and every reader will be amazed by the nurse's techniques, how she uses special equipment to bolster her information, and how thorough the examination must be for an accurate result.

Forensic Nurse is a book that will leave every reader hoping to have this fast-growing medical specialty represented in his or her medical world, always on call if and when it is needed.



About the Author
Serita Stevens has published a wide variety of previous books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her Deadly Doses: A Writer's Guide to Poisons has been a consistent bestselling work for many years. She lives in North Hollywood with her young daughter, Alexandra, whom she adopted as an infant from a Romanian orphanage.



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Stevens, a registered nurse and mystery author, paints a vivid picture of how forensic training now enables the nurse to play the traditional patient-advocate role in groundbreaking ways, such as identifying suspicious injuries, gathering evidence, and working with law enforcement. Nurses function in a forensic capacity when they care for criminals within the criminal justice system, work as legal nurse consultants for law firms, or, most important, encounter victims of crime or abuse. Stevens's goal is to define and promote this rapidly growing field; unfortunately, her book is not up to that task. Inadequately researched, repetitive, and poorly written, it also devotes too much space to presenting numerous case studies. There is coverage of various forensic roles, but the text is unevenly weighted to "Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner." Another flaw is the outdated and incomplete bibliography. Although this is the only book available on the topic, it is recommended only for the most extensive nursing collections. Bridget Faricy-Beredo, Lorian Cty. Community Coll., Elyria, OH Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.


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