Journal of forensic nursing
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Review Case Reports
The challenges forensic nurses face when their patient is comatose: addressing the needs of our most vulnerable patient population.
Since 1996, the American Nurses Association has recognized forensic nursing as a formal specialty. Despite this recognition, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners and Emergency Department nurses struggle with incorporating evidence collection into the care they give the unconscious or comatose patient they suspect has been sexually assaulted. Through case example, this article provides an abbreviated review of the circumstances under which these patients present for care, current challenges, and barriers in upholding the standard of forensic nursing care, as well as proposed interventions for the practicing forensic nurse.
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Violence remains a public health challenge and the nursing profession accepts this challenge by expanding its field. Although countries such as the United States, Great Britain, and Canada have employed forensic nurses for decades in different capacities, Germany has yet to follow their lead. This report discusses the German health care and legal systems and challenges Germany to develop an innovative, cost-efficient, and competent profession of forensic nursing.