Forensic nursing. Diversity in education and practice

Forensic nursing, as a professional discipline, originally defined its role as a medical examiner's investigator in the field of death investigation. However, with the evolution of a new area of clinical practice, the application of forensic science to nursing reveals a wider role in the investigation of crime and in the legal process. Forensic nursing, as a clinical subspecialty, fills a complementary role to clinical forensic medicine. As an emerging discipline, clinical forensic nursing recognizes that health care providers must assume a mutual responsibility with forensic scientists and the criminal justice system in concern for the survivor of violent crime and perpetrators of criminal acts. The registered nurse can be a great asset in the forensic sciences. Death has become a respectable field of inquiry, demanding answers to satisfy the public need and demand to determine the cause and manner of death. Nurses can bring empathy and compassion--as well as excellent observation, clinical, and communication skills--to death investigation.