Forensic Nurse, SANE RN - Emergency Department, Evening

Overview

The Clinical Nurse is an engaged and credentialed member of the Professional Nursing Organization and is responsible for autonomous practice directed by the professional tenets of practitioner, leader/decision maker, scientist, and transferor. The Clinical Nurse is responsible for utilizing the nursing process to provide evidence-based care and to continuously monitor and evaluate practice to ensure safe passage of patients that is in the best interest of populations served.

The Clinical Emergency/Forensic nurse will be an expert Emergency Department nurse with an adjunct specialization in forensic nursing. Emergency Nursing is a specialized area of practice that is both independent and collaborative, requiring the continual acquisition and application of a specialized body of knowledge and skills. This demands a broad scope of practice to promptly deliver emergency, urgent, and non-urgent care to patients of all ages and from all cultural backgrounds.

Emergency nursing care is episodic, primary, and typically acute, but may be chronic in nature requiring knowledge and skills to care for patients of all ages, acuities, and physical or psychological conditions. Forensic nursing is the practice of nursing when health and legal systems intersect. Forensic nurses provide specialized care for patients who are experiencing acute and long-term health consequences associated with victimization or violence, and/or have unmet evidentiary needs relative to having been victimized or accused of victimization.

Forensic nurses are a critical resource for anti-violence efforts. The forensic nurse provides consultation and testimony for civil and criminal proceedings relative to nursing practice, care given, and opinions rendered regarding findings. Forensic nursing care is not separate and distinct from other forms of medical care, but rather specialized and integrated into the overall care needs of individual patients. The forensic nurse provides specialized medical forensic evaluations to patients experiencing violence, abuse and/or acts of crime.

Patient populations served will include vulnerable adult and pediatric patients in the field of sexual assault, domestic violence, abuse, neglect, mistreatment, and death investigations. The Emergency/Forensic nurse position will be a collaborative role delivering patient care primarily in the emergency department in conjunction functioning as a forensic nurse providing medical evaluations in the unit or affiliate system hospitals as needed.

On Call requires a minimum of 48 hours/month for call which includes one weekend/month. Schedule is 3x12hr shifts/week and either 3p-3a or 11a-11p.

• Provide forensic nursing care in a trauma informed manner.
• Collaborate with the medical team and ensure a Medical Screening Exam has or will be completed.
• Provide medical care simultaneously, while providing the associated forensic needs of the patient specific to each patient population. Provide medical forensic evaluation options of care specific to the patient population seen to include gathering the history of the violence and performing a comprehensive physical assessment.
• If evidence collection is completed as part of the medical forensic evaluation, the nurse examiner will adhere and apply forensic nursing care in conformity with the State of New Hampshire Acute Care of the Sexual Assault Patient standards.
• Collaborate and facilitate advocacy services to appropriate patient populations.
• Perform and document the comprehensive medical forensic evaluation; including documentation of detailed injuries with support of photography/videography with consent of the patient and if required parent/guardian.
• Maintain chain of custody for each piece of evidence collection when completed.
• Coordinate care of agencies involved and coordinate referrals appropriate to each patient medical and/or mental health follow up care.
• Facilitate mandatory reporting as required by law to reporting agencies when needed.
• Provide testimony as a fact witness when subpoenaed and coordinate with attorneys during the judicial process. Maintain open communication with Risk Management during judicial process proceedings.
• Collaborate with team members to continue to grow the program internally and externally creating partnerships with community partners.
• This position will be open/eligible to additional on call hours requiring a one-hour response time.
• Emergency Nurse Responsibilities
• Utilize the nursing process to assess, diagnose, identify outcomes, plan, implement and evaluate an individualized plan of care.
• Utilize critical thinking and the nursing process to anticipate and recognize changes in patient status, taking action to modify the plan of care or to elevate to the care team as necessary.
• Practice in accordance with the ANA Code of Ethics to advocate for patients, uphold their autonomy in decision-making, ensure informed consent and assist patients in families in expressing…