Document Type

Honors Thesis

Major

Nursing

Advisor(s)

Kelley Strout

Committee Members

Saul Allen, Polly Campbell, Amanda Chambers, Sid Mitchell

Graduation Year

May 2022

Publication Date

Spring 5-2022

Abstract

Victims of violence are highly likely to be under the care of a nurse at some point in their life and require specific assessments, communication techniques, and background knowledge to ensure high-quality patient-centered care. Therefore, it is imperative that senior nursing students who are about to enter the nursing profession are properly educated on how to care for these vulnerable patient populations. The aim of this study was to determine the efficiency of the forensic nursing content in Maine’s public universities' nursing curricula in preparing its students to care for these patients. This study included a 28-item survey distributed to nursing students enrolled in the state of Maine’s five public Bachelorette of Science in Nursing (BSN) programs. The survey included questions on the student’s perceived knowledge, preparation, and satisfaction of their nursing school education of forensic nursing topics. These topics include sexual assault and rape, interpersonal violence, human trafficking, child abuse, elder abuse, and the role of forensic/SANE nurses. As a whole, most of the responses indicated a moderate or higher level of knowledge, preparation, and satisfaction for all forensic nursing topics that align with basic competency requirements of the governing body of BSN curriculum- the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). The results of the survey point to the need for additional content on human trafficking in Maine’s undergraduate nursing curricula.

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