Trauma-Informed Approaches to Medicolegal Death Investigation: A Forensic Nursing Perspective

Abstract

Forensic nurses engaged in medicolegal death investigations experience trauma-induced responses in responding to, investigating, and documenting sudden unexpected deaths. The trauma of these repeated experiences often results in diminished performance, job dissatisfaction, and burnout. The principles of traumainformed care are not new but have not been incorporated into death investigation practices. When coupled with medicolegal death investigation procedures, application of these principles can help to alleviate distress for forensic nurses, colleagues, and decedents of concerned families. This case series illustrates how the principles of trauma-informed care can be implemented to enhance communication, deescalate emotional or threatening situations, and prevent retraumatization in the context of medicolegal death investigations.

Trauma-Informed Research With Emerging Adult Survivors of Sexual Violence

“…Such approaches first require acknowledgment of the likely prevalence of trauma among various populations, followed by recognition of how individuals' actions and behaviors are influenced by trauma, effective responses by providers and other professionals, and avoidance of retraumatization (SAMHSA, 2014). These activities have been applied to a variety of disciplines and activities, including the work of medicolegal death investigators (Drake & Burton, 2022), nursing education (Anderson et al, 2023), care of LGBTQIA+ populations (Murkerjee et al, 2021), mothers of NICU-hospitalized children (Rodrigues et al, 2023), and many others. In developing trauma-informed research approaches, it is therefore necessary to consider not only the potentially traumatic phenomenon of interest but also ways in which trauma may be present in other aspects of participants' lives.…”