Forensic Nurse Standard Open for Comments through July 2023

OSAC Standard for Evidence Collection and Management for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations for Adults and Adolescents & Standard for the Education of Forensic Nurses who Conduct Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations for Adult and Adolescent Patients. 

 

Forensic nursing has become the standard in the health care response to victims of violence. To ensure quality, reliability, efficiency, and consistency among practitioners, development of forensic nursing standards is essential. In 2009, the National Research Council of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS) published a report, Strengthening Forensic Science: A Path Forward, which critiqued the forensic science community and emphasized need for enforceable standards and promotion of best practices. In response to this report, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) created the Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science (OSAC) in 2014. As the visibility of forensic nursing has grown, NIST OSAC deemed it critical to create a Forensic Nursing Subcommittee (FNSC). Created in 2021, the purpose of the FNSC is to propose high-quality, technically sound standards that define minimum requirements, best practices, and evidence-based protocols, and provide guidance to ensure reliable and reproducible outcomes.

 

All standards of practice provide a guide to the knowledge, skills, judgment and attitudes needed to practice safely. Professional forensic nursing standards ensure that quality nursing care is promoted and requires critical thinking in addition to the application of scientific knowledge to improve health. Critical thinking depends on the use of standards that reflect scientifically based and practice-based criteria for making clinical decisions.

 

To ensure proposed forensic nursing standards are comprehensive, feasible, and accurately reflect forensic nursing practice, input from the forensic nursing community is essential. After proposed standards are posted on the OSAC website, the public has 30 days to make comments (see the link below) After the FNSC makes revisions based on public comments, proposed standards are sent to a standards development organization (SDO) for adoption, and make changes before publishing the standards.

 

Having valid and reliable forensic nursing standards will improve consistency and strengthen practice from the clinic to the courtroom. 

 

For more information, reach out to the NIST OSAC FNSC Chair, Joyce Williams, at joycewilliamsdnp@gmail.com

 

The first two FNSC proposed standards are available for public comment until 2359 July 3, 2023:

 -OSAC 2023-N-0013 Standard for Evidence Collection and Management for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations for Adults and Adolescents

 -OSAC 2023-N-0015 Standard for the Education of Forensic Nurses who Conduct Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations for Adult and Adolescent Patients

 

https://www.nist.gov/organization-scientific-area-committees-forensic-science/standards-open-comment