In this special presentation, the Academy of Forensic Nursing will help memorialize forensic nursing providers and visionary leaders who came before us, worked beside us, and left behind a lasting legacy.

Join past presidents of the Academy of Forensic Nursing for a dynamic panel examining the organization’s history, leadership strategies, and lasting influence on the specialty. This session will explore AFN’s founding motivations, highlight pivotal milestones in advocacy and practice, and showcase how past leaders addressed challenges in advancing forensic nursing. Panelists will share impactful stories, reflect on organizational legacy, and offer insights into fostering professional growth and guiding the Academy’s future direction. Participants will gain practical leadership lessons and a renewed appreciation for the Academy’s enduring contributions to the field, while leaving inspired to shape the next era of forensic nursing excellence.

Disasters such as climate-related or health-related crises are occurring more often. National and international nursing agencies have included disaster nursing as a competency and ethical requirement for all nurses. More specific competencies were developed by the International Council of Nurses (ICN) to cover each of the three main phases of a disaster—disaster planning, disaster responses, and post-disaster recovery—at the basic- and advanced-nursing levels. These competencies were more recently expanded to add a third level of disaster expertise. There is no mention of forensic nursing roles in any of these documents, and yet forensic nurses have many unique skills to contribute. These include a core knowledge of trauma-informed practice, well suited to crisis support, but also skills such as community networking, planning, injury identification and evidence preservation, infection control, and even death investigation. It is well recognized that rates of intimate partner violence and sexual assault increase significantly during disasters and often forensic services get reduced to redeploy the forensic nurses to other areas of the health response. In this presentation, the speakers will review the disaster phases and competencies created by ICN as well as the competencies and roles of forensic nurses. Using a series of case examples, they will then suggest a possible alignment between these competencies with implications for future policy, position statements, and collaboration with disaster organizations.

The field of forensic nursing has advanced significantly over the past three decades. Forensic nurses play a crucial role in documenting forensic exams and collecting evidence to support survivors, many of whom are children who have experienced sexual abuse. A key component of these exams is forensic photography, which has become standard practice in child sexual abuse evaluations. This process often involves capturing multiple images or video recordings of sensitive areas of children’s bodies—an experience they may not fully understand and could find confusing or traumatic. This quality improvement project examines the ethical considerations of photographing all child sexual abuse exams, given that research consistently shows genital injuries are typically absent—even in cases of repeated abuse or abuse by older perpetrators. The central questions are: Should forensic nurses routinely take photographs in cases where no medically significant findings are expected? If photography is deemed necessary, what ethical and trauma-informed care principles should guide the process? Through a scoping review of the literature, this project evaluates best practices in forensic genital photography and child sexual abuse exams based on research in child abuse and forensic nursing. The overarching goal is to promote greater consistency in forensic genital photography practices among nurses conducting child sexual abuse exams—beginning with informed consent and continuing through the entire process, including debriefing and photo management.

Despite increasing occurrences of domestic terrorism and mass-casualty events within the United States, most forensic nurses receive little to no formal education or training related to terrorism, radicalization, or targeted violence. Forensic nurses are uniquely positioned to extend their scope of practice to include risk recognition and harm reduction associated with emerging threats. This presentation highlights the importance of forensic nurses understanding the social, psychological, and environmental antecedents that contribute to radicalization and violent extremist behavior—particularly in youth and marginalized populations. By incorporating early screening, trauma-informed interventions, and community education into their roles, forensic nurses can help disrupt the trajectory toward violence and promote protective factors at the individual, family, and community levels. A triple-tiered framework will be presented, outlining practical, developmentally appropriate strategies that both novice and advanced forensic nurses can implement within clinical, educational, and public health contexts. These strategies emphasize cross-sector collaboration, proactive engagement, and culturally responsive care to reduce the risk of death and long-term disability associated with acts of mass violence. This approach not only enhances community resilience but also aligns with the evolving responsibilities of forensic nurses as public health leaders and violence prevention specialists. By bridging current knowledge gaps and integrating preventative models into forensic nursing practice, this presentation offers a timely and essential roadmap for responding to the complex dynamics of domestic terrorism and its impact on public safety.

The Forensic Nurse Examiner Program at (name of organization) trained hundreds of Forensic Nurses. (name of organization) is the busiest Level 1 Trauma Center in the state of xxxxx), with the forensic nurse team seeing over 200 patients per month. As a comprehensive Forensic Nurse Program, we see all patients affected by violence. Through several iterations, the leadership team has developed a structured orientation composed of multiple blocks and learner objectives to train the novice forensic nurse. Content is divided into themed segments to allow for subject immersion. This 8- to 12-week orientation engages multi-modal learning targeting learners of all styles—using auditory-supported presentations, informal leadership videocasts, hands-on skills training and mock scenarios, structured checklists to ensure timely completion, competency assessments, and dynamic SMART goal setting. Also factored into orientation are intentionally designed preceptorship pairings based on learning and personality styles. Ongoing education and support for preceptor competency and resiliency is a key component and includes bi-monthly meetings and the creation of a lead preceptor role. During this presentation the comprehensive orientation process will be thoroughly described. Materials and format details will be shared with attendees with time for Q&A from the speaker panel to answer burning questions. This orientation process is adaptable and transferable to established or burgeoning programs alike. Attendees will leave equipped to implement a robust orientation process within their organization to progress forensic nurses along the novice-to-expert continuum.

Trauma and violence are pervasive and affect youth of all ages, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Schools are on the frontlines where a disclosure of a traumatic event can occur. For this reason, it is essential for school nurses to be knowledgeable of how to best respond and support students using trauma-informed practices, and how to report information to authorities efficiently for best health, well-being, safety, legal, and recovery outcomes. The intersection of school and forensic nursing occurs when a student transitions to and from the school setting to the hospital or CAC setting. School nurses are positioned to be the constant during this unfamiliar process. Even the most seasoned school nurse can feel like a novice when a student discloses a traumatic event, but the nursing process can be easily adapted to providing patient-centered, trauma-informed care. School nurses should have access to quality and affordable resources that provide the foundation to practice competently and be invaluable assets to students, families, teachers, and administrators. Empowering school nurses to explore resources in their communities and prepare to respond and support any form of trauma and violence should be part of each school's response plan. Evolving the role of the forensic nurse is vital for this to occur.