The opinions of senior nursing students about forensic nursing

Emine Tuğba Topçu,Ebru Erek Kazan

doi:10.1186/s41935-018-0045-y

Emine Tuğba Topçu, Ebru Erek Kazan

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s41935-018-0045-y

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Abstract

BackgroundToday, the increasing number of crime and violence cases is defined as a universal health problem and nurses are the first healthcare personnel to encounter victims and offenders in hospitals, emergency units, intensive care, and services, even at policlinics or on-scene; therefore, it is important that nurses receive education in forensic nursing.MethodsThis study was conducted as a descriptive study to determine the opinions of senior nursing students about forensic nursing. This study was conducted with 95 students and its data were collected via a questionnaire that contains descriptive features and opinions about students’ forensic nursing education.ResultsThe results revealed that 94.7% of students believed that both forensic nursing should be an area of specialization and that nurses should receive forensic nursing education, 42.1% of them stated that this education should be given as an elective course in school, and 40% of the students stated that they wanted to become a forensic nurse when they graduated.ConclusionsThe findings suggest that senior nursing students’ knowledge about forensic nursing was insufficient and that they were untrained in this area.

Highlights

Today, the increasing number of crime and violence cases is defined as a universal health problem and nurses are the first healthcare personnel to encounter victims and offenders in hospitals, emergency units, intensive care, and services, even at policlinics or on-scene; it is important that nurses receive education in forensic nursing
This study was conducted as a descriptive study to determine the opinions of senior nursing students about forensic nursing
When we examined the studies conducted with nurses related to the subject, İlçe et al (2010) investigated the knowledge and applications of healthcare personnel working in emergency departments for the protection and preservation of evidence in forensic cases; they stated that more than half of the 44 healthcare staff who participated in the study had not received any training with regard to forensic nursing

Summary

Introduction

The increasing number of crime and violence cases is defined as a universal health problem and nurses are the first healthcare personnel to encounter victims and offenders in hospitals, emergency units, intensive care, and services, even at policlinics or on-scene; it is important that nurses receive education in forensic nursing. The modern world’s increasing number of crime and violence cases is defined as a universal health problem, and nurses are the first healthcare personnel to encounter victims and offenders in hospitals, emergency units, intensive care, services, even at policlinics or on-scene (Sunmaz et al 2008; Sharma 2003). In forensic nursing; nurses use the education they have taken in forensics to examine the victims of violence, trauma, other criminal cases and death events In addition they use this education make scientific investigations of this cases (Kent-Wilkinson 1999). Forensic nurses can work in emergency services, suicide prevention centers, rape crisis centers, crime scene investigations, death investigations, prisons, prosecutors’ offices, law offices, forensic pathology laboratories, and at as expert witnesses in court (Lynch 2011; Pinar and Bahar 2011)

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