Defined as the use of nursing procedures to aid in legal proceedings, forensic nursing often incorporates the use of clinical practices in a manner that supports the protection of victims of crime. Ordinarily, there are several circumstances that warrant their practice such as homicides, rape and assault and forensic analysis after death has occurred. Constantino, Crane, and Young (2012) note that forensic nursing stretches the overall holistic framework within which nursing as a profession was founded, to also include the law. Essentially, forensic nursing is aimed at ensuring that proper medical procedures are realized in the accomplishment of forensic goals. Summarily, forensic nursing involves the application of nursing as a career to help in the criminal justice system through the facilitation of investigations. The discipline infuses the practices of criminal justice, forensic science, public health, and nursing science; thus offering a connection between the medical and the legal professions. This paper defines and describes forensic and correctional nursing. It goes further to explain issues important to each of the subspecialty of forensic nursing. Finally, it describes the intervention performed by them and the factors affecting health and wellness in a correctional setting.
Specialty of Forensic Nurses
As a field of knowledge, forensic nursing involves the fusion of nursing practices into legal processes. It involves the use of nursing knowledge to investigate death and injury that befalls the victims of criminal activities or even accidents. Constantion, Crane, and Young (2012) point out that forensic nursing goes beyond the provision of investigative help to also infuse the collection and preservation of material evidence that would aid in the processes of investigation, prosecution, and solution of crimes. It is particularly true in the specialty of death investigations as a concern for forensic nursing.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Secondly, discipline involves a medical-legal consultation specialty. Often, forensic nurses may be called upon to give testimonies and expert accounts during court processes, with the aim of helping the courts understand the medical aspect of crimes. In this way, they offer consultation to the legal field by lending their expert medical point of view to the criminal justice establishment throughout the investigation and prosecution of crime. The collaboration among different disciplines involved in the entire criminal justice system would allow the speedy and accurate delivery of justice ( Esteves, Lasiuk, Cardoso, and Kent-Wilkinson, 2014: Oermann, 2012 ). In this manner, the profession enables for the speedy and accurate investigation and prosecutions of criminal cases, as well as the improvement of both mental and physical wellbeing of victims of crime.
Thirdly, there is the sexual assault specialty in forensic nursing which deals with the handling of the evidence to aid in the investigation and prosecution of perpetrators. In addition to that, by applying their competence in the handling of patients, forensic nurses act to improve the outcomes, and even quality of life, for the victims of such crimes – who may suffer different complications that include post-traumatic stress disorder (Constantino, Crane, and Young, 2012: Townsend and Morgan, 2017). Just as much forensic nursing under the sexual assault specialty, involves the identification, management, and prevention of injuries to victims of criminal activities that may result from their unfortunate exposure to such crimes. Still, on the specialty of sexual assault, forensic nursing also involves the assessment of, and provision of care to either the victims or even perpetrators of crime, with the objective of increasing the successful conclusion of criminal investigations. Thus forensic nurses specialize in the provision of medical care and nursing interventions to the field of criminal investigations (Oermann, 2012).
Finally, the discipline also involves the forensic psychiatric specialty. It is rooted in the fact that the victims of crime, and sometimes the perpetrators of such crime, may face medical complications that other patients ordinarily would not. Through its application, forensic nursing would help by focusing on the wellbeing of either patients or perpetrators of crime.
Subspecialties of Forensic Nursing
Each of the subspecialties of forensic nursing focuses on specific aspects that are deemed significant in the linkage between nursing and crime. For one, the sexual assault subspecialty focuses on offering nursing expertise in the collection of evidence to be used against the suspects and perpetrators of sexual offenses. The subspecialty also focuses on the wellbeing of the patients who are victims of sexual assault. The professionals offer the sexual assault victims’ medical interventions to help in the prevention and management of any issues that may present form such trauma. Esteves, Lasiuk, Cardoso, and Kent-Wilkinson (2014), notes that forensic nursing also allows the professional to offer holistic care to the victims by focusing on sexual assault hence provides them with medical, psychological and social care to help them overcome their ordeals.
The death investigation specialty, on the other hand, focuses on among other things, the cause of death to victims of crime. The process is accomplished by establishing the link between facts collected by police and investigative authorities in the process of determining the actual cause of death. As such, the application of forensic nursing attaches importance to the facts that may have led to the death of a victim through the application of its professional expertise. It also seeks to clarify on rulings such as whether such death was accidental or intentional. It goes a long way in helping the investigative authorities to ascertain the cause of death and decide whether criminal proceedings need to be instituted against suspects or perpetrators.
Another subspecialty of forensic and correctional nursing is medical and legal consultation. The area focuses on common areas between law and medicine. Oermann (2012) notes that forensic nurses offer expert opinions on the medical aspects involved in the process of investigation of crime and even prosecution of such crime. For instance, forensic nurses may be called upon by criminal investigation agencies, or by courts of law to offer their expert opinions on issues to do with the crime. Such input would be instrumental to the speedy and logical conclusion of investigations or court cases.
Finally, for the forensic psychiatric nursing, the main issues to be considered would be the mental health and wellbeing of individuals who have mental health issues or psychological disorders (Townsend and Morgan, 2017: Esteves, Lasiuk, Cardoso, and Kent-Wilkinson, 2014 ). Being that such individuals are likely to inflict harm to others or themselves, forensic nurses intervene to offer holistic care to the individuals. Just like ‘regular’ nursing practitioners, forensic nurses have an interest in the holistic well-being of patients; specifically, those who have been victims or perpetrators of crime, looking to improve their mental and physical health (Oermann, 2012). It is achieved by offering medical intervention to the victims of crime while also addressing their traumatic experiences through relevant psychological interventions.
Interventions and Services of Forensic Nursing
In the course of practice, forensic nurses are called upon to offer certain services and interventions as may be necessary. Among such interventions and services is the assessment of patients to determine the level of care they need, and to offer such where possible or to refer the patients to the relevant facility. Simmons (2014) notes that forensic nursing also includes the treatment of patients (who have been victims of crime) and offering them care to aid in their holistic recovery. In collaboration with other medical practitioners, forensic nurses may offer the needed treatment to either victims or perpetrators of crime, with the aim of improving their wellbeing. Investigative assistance is also a part of the duties that a forensic nurse is expected to discharge. The professionals are usually called upon to offer help to law enforcement through the preservation of any and all evidence deemed material for the investigation and prosecution of any case. Simmons (2014) indicates that forensic nurses often need to be well trained in a certain process that help in the criminal justice process which may include the recovery, collection, and preservation of evidence found on the person of, or around, a victim of criminal activities.
Often, forensic nurses are the first health professionals to make contact with the victims of criminal attacks. As such, it is necessary for them to offer psychological care, through counseling, to such individuals in a bid to help manage the trauma they may have suffered. As such, forensic nurses also offer psychological intervention and counseling services to help in the provision of holistic care to patients. Forensic nurses may also offer interventions geared towards the management of risk for patients who have been victims of crime. In this way, the professionals would offer medical help to minimize any physical or mental harm that the victims have undergone.
In addition, forensic nurses may from time to time be called upon to help in the development, roll-out, and even implementation of healthcare initiatives that seek to improve the collaboration between healthcare professionals and law enforcement agencies with a view to improve investigative processes that involve harm to victims ( Esteves, Lasiuk, Cardoso, and Kent-Wilkinson, 2014 ). Investigative assistance is also a part of the duties that a forensic nurse is expected to discharge. The professionals are usually called upon to offer help to law enforcement through the preservation of any and all evidence deemed material for the investigation and prosecution of any case. Simmons, (2014) notes that forensic nurses are usually competent in the recovery, collection, and preservation of evidence found within and around patients and victim of a crime so as to help in discharging justice.
Health and Wellness in Correctional Settings
Individuals committed to correctional settings often face a number of health and wellness issues. For one, such individuals may not access adequate mental and psychiatric healthcare. Couch (2015) notes that instances of mental health complications in correctional institutions may be as high as 56% in the US state prisons. It may result in the condemnation of individuals to suffer silently, therefore, diminishing the health and wellness of persons locked up in such institutions.
Overcrowding in prisons, particularly in the US, as Campers (2012) notes, may also limit the quality of healthcare that inmates in such institutions get. With limited resources being stretched to serve an ever-increasing population, the prison healthcare system may not adequately address the needs of individuals. It thereby limits the health and wellness indicators for persons committed into such institutions.
Inadequate support system also limits the health and wellbeing of individuals in correctional facilities. Facilities such as focus groups that are formed in the normal setting to suppress addiction and psychological recoveries are not well supported in the correctional facilities setting. As such, persons in the facilities lack the desirable social support system, and consequently, they are less likely to enjoy holistic recovery for the period they are still in prisons and correctional institutions (Breakwell, 2015: Campers, 2012).
Finally, improper follow up on the conditions of individuals may also limit the healthcare interventions and services. It particularly applies to individuals serving jail sentences such as inmates in correctional facilities. The improper healthcare can be attributed to the strain on the limited resources. Some of the facilities are forces to be shared whereas other individuals fail to get attention. As result cases such as the increased cases of suicide and incarceration are witnessed (Cloud, 2017).
In conclusion, Individuals in correctional facilities face three main challenges that affect their health and wellness. First, the overcrowded setting of the prison stretches the health and wellness facilities in the correctional facilities. Secondly, the prison lacks adequate support systems such as focus groups making the individuals have a retarded recovery process. Finally, the individual in correctional facilities lacks from poor follow up that is compounded by the overcrowding and lack of support systems.
References
Breakwell, G. M. (2015). Coping with Threatened Identities . New York, NY: The Psychology Press.
Campers, S. M. (2012). A Failing Correctional System: State Prison Overcrowding in the United States. Pell Scholars & Senior Theses, 79, 1-20
Cloud, D. H. (2017). Reckoning with the Rise of the Carceral State. American Journal of Public Health 107 (2), 200-202
Constantino, R. E., Crane, P. A., & Young, S. E. (2012). Forensic Nursing: Evidence-Based Principles and Practice . FA Davis.
Couch, R. (2015). These Programs Are Helping Fix A Broken U.S. Prison System. The Huffington Post, February 12, 2015 . [Online] Accessed October 11, 2017, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/12/recidivism-programs-prison_n_6655392.html .
Esteves, R. B., Lasiuk, G. C., Cardoso, L., & Kent-Wilkinson, A. (2014). Toward the Establishment of a Forensic Nursing Specialty in Brazil: An Integrative Literature Review. Journal of Forensic Nursing , 10 (4), 189-198.
Oermann, M. H. (2012). Impact Factors and Clinical Specialty Nursing Journals. Journal of Clinical Nursing , 21 (3‐4), 299-300.
Townsend, M. C., & Morgan, K. I. (2017). Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing: Concepts of Care in Evidence-Based Practice . FA Davis.
