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Clinical Forensics for Perioperative Nurses
Author(s) -
Muro Grace A.,
Easter Catherine R.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
aorn journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.222
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1878-0369
pISSN - 0001-2092
DOI - 10.1016/s0001-2092(07)63296-7
Subject(s) - documentation , perioperative nursing , perioperative , legal action , action (physics) , health care , function (biology) , psychology , medicine , nursing , law , political science , surgery , computer science , physics , quantum mechanics , evolutionary biology , biology , programming language
Perioperative nurses frequently care for the victims and suspected perpetrators of violent crimes. Nurses often are the first health care providers to assess the trauma patient and collect crucial evidence for future legal action. Informational evidence includes observations about patients' behavior and appearance and documentation of their comments. Nurses also must protect the chain of evidence so that evidence can be admissible in court. To function in this role, perioperative nurses must understand the concepts of clinical forensics, which is the application of the principles and practices of forensic science to questions of law in the investigation of violent crime. AORN J 60 (Oct 1994) 585–593.