Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine 66 (2019) 86–90

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Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/yjflm

Research Paper

The impact of forensic nursing course on students’ knowledge level on T

forensic evidence
Dilek Özdena, Hüsna Özverenb, İlkin Yılmazc,∗
a
Fundamentals of Nursing Department, Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Nursing. Izmir, 35340, Turkey
b
Nursing Department, Kırıkkale University Faculty of Health Sciences, Kırıkkale, 71300, Turkey
c
Dokuz Eylül University Health Science Institute, Izmir, 35340, Turkey

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The study is designed as quasi experimental including pre-test and post-test. The sample of the study is consisted
Forensic nursing of 98 students who are taking the Forensic Nursing course in the second year of the School of Nursing at a
Nursing student university.
Forensic evidence The mean score obtained from the test on the knowledge of forensic evidence before the training was
Knowledge level
23.63 ± 5.24 while the mean score after the training was 33.32 ± 4.54. A statistically significant difference
Nursing course
was found when the average scores of the students were compared before and after the course of forensic
nursing.
It was revealed that the course of forensic nursing taken by the students has a positive effect on the knowledge
of forensic evidence of students and increases their knowledge level. The results suggest to add a course of
forensic nursing as an elective or mandatory course to the curriculum of nursing programs and disseminate the
postgraduate education on forensic nursing.

1. Introduction
Changes in healthcare and developments in science and technology
have created different fields of study on the practices and roles of
nurses. Forensic nursing is one of these fields of study. Forensic nursing,
which is a specialty, is the implementation of nursing science through
legal procedures and is defined as a discipline used to examine perpe-
trators or victims in violent, traumatic or other criminal events and to
investigate criminal activities.1–4
Nurses are the first people to see the individuals related to the
events in forensic cases, communicate with their family or relatives,
touch their items during the examination and come into contact with
the laboratory specimen of the individuals.5,6 Therefore, it is believed
that forensic nurses who have specialty training in forensic medicine
can contribute to the solution of many criminal cases by being part of a
forensic team.4,7 However, studies show that very little forensic content
is included in the curriculum of nursing.7–9 In fact, strengthening for-
ensic nursing education would produce positive outcomes, including
improved patient care, better patient safety, enhanced access to ser-
vices, less burden on the health care system, increased confidence and
skill of nurses providing care, higher patient satisfaction, and more
options for those in violent situations.10 Nurses who have not received
any special training on the assessment of forensic cases cause the evi-
dence to be left unnoticed, overlooked, vanished or damaged during
identification, collection and storage procedures. This can make for-
ensic examination difficult and may result in abortive trials and wrong
decisions.5,11,12 The study of Eldredge13 shows that training on forensic
science enhances the effectiveness of nurses in gathering evidence.
Collecting evidence is an important part of the judicial process. The
duty of nurses in a judicial case is to collect evidence carefully, to
prevent the disappearance of the evidence and to deliver the protected
evidence to the relevant institutions safely. That nurses cause damage
to the evidence due to a lack of knowledge while providing care and
treatment, may complicate the investigations of forensic cases. This can
cause the nurse to be found guilty. For this reason, nurses play an im-
portant role in the identification of judicial cases and the collection,
storage and recording of evidence. Nurses who are trained on the
process of forensic cases will contribute greatly to the legal process and
system.14,15,16,17 When the studies are examined, it is revealed that
nurses do not have sufficient knowledge of topics such as forensic
nursing and forensic evidence.18–24
It is important that nursing students, who will be working pro-
fessionally in the future, receive comprehensive and sufficient training
in handling forensic evidence during their undergraduate studies.

∗
Corresponding author. Dokuz Eylül University Health Science Institute, Izmir, 35340, Turkey. Tel.: +90 232 412 4779; fax: +90 232 412 4798.
E-mail address: ilkinyilmaz85@gmail.com (İ. Yılmaz).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jflm.2019.06.012
Received 14 November 2018; Received in revised form 10 June 2019; Accepted 16 June 2019
Available online 18 June 2019
1752-928X/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.
D. Özden, et al.
Strengthening forensic nursing education will increase patient sa-
tisfaction by allowing the training of nurses, who provide patients with
better patient care, safety, trust, place less burden on the health system,
and contribute to a higher quality health service.1,10 Forensic nursing is
a new specialization in the field of nursing that has been gradually
developing in our country. There are no legally defined forensic nurses
whose job descriptions are determined in our country. There are very
few programs in our country that offer undergraduate and graduate
forensic nursing education. Forensic evidence is mostly evaluated by
nurses who have not received special education. Our observations
suggest that the nurses who deal with a forensic case are not well in-
formed about how the evidence is collected, stored, or how the evi-
dence chain is constructed.25 Therefore, it is necessary to train profes-
sional forensic nurses with professional leadership and problem-solving
skills who can apply an holistic approach to forensic cases ethically on a
national and international scale. It is important to start this training at
the undergraduate level. However, despite the fact that there are stu-
dies that reveal the knowledge of student nurses on forensic nursing in
Turkey in the literature,26–28 no research has been conducted to ex-
amine the level of knowledge of nurses regarding the identification,
collection, storage and recording of forensic evidence. The data ob-
tained from this study will allow the elective course of forensic nursing
to evaluate the knowledge level of undergraduate students on forensic
nursing and shed light on the studies to be carried out on the curri-
culum. Increasing the knowledge of student nurses on forensic evidence
will provide high quality, safe and holistic nursing care. This study was
conducted to determine the knowledge levels of nurses about forensic
evidence and the effect of education on this subject.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Study design
The study is designed as a quasi experimental including pre-test and
post-test.
2.2. Study sample
The study population consisted of 107 students who took the course
of Forensic Nursing in the second year at the Faculty of Nursing at a
university. 98 students (91.5%) who voluntarily agreed to participate in
the research constituted the study sample.
2.3. Data collection
The data of the study was collected between February 2018 and
May 2018. Students included in the study were given an informative
features form and a test on forensic evidence in the first and last lesson
of the term. Students were asked to assign themselves a code consisting
of the first letter of their first and last names and the last 3 digits of their
10-digit school numbers and to write them on the forms. At the end of
the term, the codes written on the form were handed to the students
and they were asked to fill out the forms once again.
The course of Forensic Nursing is offered as an elective course in the
second year. In the course, which is offered 2 h a week, topics such as
the roles and responsibilities of nurses and an ethical approach in areas
such as the definition of forensic nursing and work areas, the role of
nurses, examination of materials, investigation of materials, child and
elderly abuse, sex offences, poisoning, injuries, suicide and medical
malpractice are shared. All the courses are taught by a faculty member.
Before the course of forensic approach, students go on a 4-h excursion
to the Forensic Medicine Institute found in the province where the fa-
culty is located.
87
Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine 66 (2019) 86–90
2.4. Data collection tools
The researchers collected the data of the study by using the ques-
tionnaire prepared with the help of the literature.5,25,29–32 This form
consists of two parts. There are 11 informative questions including in-
formative features, training and practice on forensic cases in the first
part. In the second part, 40 propositions that are intended for the de-
termination of knowledge on the identification, collection, storage and
recording of forensic evidence. The correct answers given by the stu-
dents to the propositions were given 1 point, the incorrect answers were
given 0 points and knowledge scores were evaluated out of 40 points.
The questionnaire forms were sent to a specialist named 10 who has a
forensic nursing certificate for expert opinion and the form was fina-
lized after it was corrected in accordance with the suggestions. The
value of the Content Validity Index (CVI) was set as 0.98 for expert
opinions.
2.5. Data analysis
Data gained in the study were analyzed through Statistical Package
For Social Sciences/18.0 for Windows (SPSS). In the analysis of the
data, numbers, ratio calculations, means and standard deviations were
employed as Mann whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis test and Wilcoxon
signed rank test were used for statistical analysis.
2.6. Ethical issues
Before the study was conducted, it was approved by our university
Noninvasive Research Ethics Board (Reference Number: 2018/05–06)
and the faculty which the study was conducted. All the participants
were given oral and written detailed information about the study and
informed participation was voluntary, their credentials would be kept
confidential and would not be disclosed to third parties, and they could
withdraw from the study at any time without penalty or loss of benefits
to which they were otherwise entitled. Then, they were asked to give
their written consent before the data collection process began.
3. Results
The distribution of the average knowledge scores of students on
forensic evidence according to some introductory features after the
training were shown in Table 1. The average age of the students is
20.69 ± 1.14 years. It is seen that the knowledge score of women on
forensic evidence (34.07 ± 3.60) are higher than men
(30.40 ± 6.43). A statistically significant difference was found be-
tween the mean scores of the subjects based on sex after training
(p < 0.05). The average score of the students who thought the training
on forensic cases was adequate was 33.32 ± 4.25. The average score of
the students who stated that it was partially adequate was
34.09 ± 2.69 and the average score of the students who thought it was
inadequate was 13.00 ± 2.82. A statistically significant difference was
found between the average knowledge scores of the students based on
the level of sufficiency of the training (p < 0.05). The knowledge
scores of students who thought the training was necessary for the
profession (33.74 ± 3.83) were significantly higher than the students
who thought it was partially necessary (25.60 ± 9.20) (p < 0.05).
The average knowledge scores of students who dealt with a judicial case
(33.21 ± 6.27) and those who did not (33.37 ± 3.46) were found to
be very close to each other. No statistically significant difference was
spotted in the statistical evaluation according to the encounter of ju-
dicial cases (p > 0.05).
Table 2 shows the distribution of the interest of students towards
judicial cases and their encounter with judicial cases in pre- and post-
training. According to the table, the rate of “source previously read
about judicial cases” was 6.1% before the training and it rose to 40.8%
after the training. The rate of “reading a book on judicial cases” was
D. Özden, et al. Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine 66 (2019) 86–90

Table 1
Distribution of students’ knowledge average scores after education on forensic evidence regarding descriptive features (n = 98).
Descriptive features n Pre-education Post-education

X̅ ± SS Test, p value X̅ ± SS Test, p value

Gender
Female 78 24.17 ± 5.23 U = 542.000 p = 0.036 34.07 ± 3.60 U = 499.500 p = 0.013
Male 20 21.50 ± 4.80 30.40 ± 6.43
Adequacy of education received
Adequate 43 24.25 ± 4.24 KW = 5.594 p = 0.061 33.32 ± 4.25 KW = 6.051 p = 0.049
Partially adequate 53 23.49 ± 5.71 34.09 ± 2.69
Inadequate 2 14.00 ± 1.41 13.00 ± 2.82
Necessity of forensic case education for their profession
Necessary 93 23.75 ± 5.08 U = 191.500 p = 0.507 33.74 ± 3.83 U = 59.000 p = 0.005
Partially necesary 5 21.40 ± 8.01 25.60 ± 9.20
Encountering forensic case
Have encountered 32 22.34 ± 5.95 U = 877.500 p = 0.175 33.21 ± 6.27 U = 852.000 p = 0.120
Have not encountered 66 24.25 ± 4.78 33.37 ± 3.46
Age 98 20.69 ± 1.14 min: 19 max:25

U, Mann-Whitney U test; KW, Kruskal Wallis test.

Table 2 training and it rose to 61.2% after the training. The rate of students who
Distribution of students’ interests in and encountering forensic case before and had previously heard of Article 280 of the Turkish Criminal Law (TCL)
after education (n = 98). was 50% before the training, but this rate rose to 84.7% after the
Students' interests in and encountering Pre-education Post-education training. The rate of students encountering stab wounds was 14.3%
forensic case before the training and it rose to 20.4% after the training. The rate of
n % n % encountering traumatic wounds was 11.2% before the training and it
rose to 16.32% after the training. The rate of encountering domestic
Whether they have read resources about forensic case beforehand
Have read 6 6.1 40 40.8 violence was 10.2% before the training and it rose to 18.4% after the
Have not read 92 93.9 58 59.2 training (Table 2).
Whether they have read books about forensic case The average scores of the students, which they got from the test on
Yes 3 3.1 11 11.2 forensic evidence before and after the course of forensic nursing, are
No 95 96.9 87 88.8
Whether they follow journals about forensic case
shown in Table 3. The total average score received from the test on
Yes 6 6.1 16 16.3 forensic evidence was 23.63 ± 5.24 before the training, while it has
No 92 93.9 82 83.7 become 33.32 ± 4.54 after the training. A statistically significant dif-
Whether they search online for forensic case ference was found when the average scores which the students scored
Yes 40 40.8 60 61.2
on the test on forensic evidence before and after the course of forensic
No 58 59.2 38 38.8
Whether they watch serials or movies about forensic case nursing (p < 0.05).
Yes 6 6.1 2 2.0
No 92 93.9 96 98.0
Whether they are familiar with Article 280 of the TCL beforehand 4. Discussion
Yes 49 50.0 83 84.7
No 49 50.0 15 15.3
Whether they have faced with penetrating stab wounds a It is important for nurses to be able to identify criminal cases and be
I have faced 14 14.3 20 20.4 knowledgeable about the procedures to be followed within their re-
I have not faced 84 85.7 78 79.6 sponsibilities. Taking care of patients and treating them are the prio-
Whether they have faced with traumatic injuriesa
rities of nurses. A nurse should pay attention not to give damage to
I have faced 11 11.2 16 16.3
I have not faced 87 88.8 82 83.7
evidence while performing his/her work and be know how to collect,
Whether they have faced with family violence a keep and store evidence.5,16,17,25 The findings obtained from the studies
I have faced 10 10.2 18 18.4 conducted to determine the effect of the course of forensic nursing on
I have not faced 88 89.8 80 81.6 the knowledge level of nursing students on forensic evidence are dis-
a cussed below.
n has multiplied due to more than one answer of the students. Line per-
The effect of the course of forensic nursing on the knowledge level
centage is employed for percentages are calculated with multiplied n.
of nursing students on forensic evidence was shown in this study. The
study shows that there are no studies on the knowledge level of nursing
3.1% before the training and it rose to 11.2% after the training. The rate
students on forensic evidence even though the number of studies on
of “keeping up with periodical publications on judicial cases” was 6.1%
forensic nursing increases in the literature.18,19,21–23 In our study, it was
before the training and it rose to 16.3% after the training. The rate of
revealed that the average knowledge score of nursing students on for-
“running an online search for judicial cases” was 40.8% before the
ensic evidence was 23.63 ± 5.24 out of 40 before the training and

Table 3
Comparison of students’ knowledge average scores before and after forensic evidence course.
Knowledge Scores Pre-test Post-test Statistical Analysis

X̅ ± SS Min Max X̅ ± SS Min Max

Total Score 23.63 ± 5.24 7 35 33.32 ± 4.54 11 39 Z = -8.365 p = 0.000

Z, Wilcoxon signed ranks test.

88
D. Özden, et al.
33.32 ± 4.54 after the training (Table 3). Considering the fact that the
highest score is 40, we can say that the knowledge of nursing students
on forensic evidence increases to a high level after the training. It is
believed that the training on forensic evidence given to students within
the course of forensic nursing has an impact on the emergence of this
difference. The differences before and after the training are important
as the reflection of the influence of the training. These results empha-
size the importance of the integration of the course of forensic nursing
into the curriculum of undergraduate education of nursing students
who will become health care professionals in the future. Forensic nur-
sing training should be the main basis for developing the knowledge
and practice of students. This education is supposed to embrace fun-
damental principles of forensic nursing and evaluate an individual re-
garding each forensic case including such issues as description, collec-
tion and saving of forensic evidence. Nurses are an indispensable part of
forensic evaluation as they are the first health professionals who en-
counter judicial cases in health institutions. Nevertheless, the in-
sufficient knowledge on forensic evidence is considered as one of the
main obstacles to forensic evaluation. When examined in the literature,
it is thought that nurses still have a limited knowledge of forensic
nursing and are inadequate in assessing forensic cases.18,19,21–23 The
low level of knowledge of the students on forensic evidence will prevent
the solution of forensic cases by causing various legal problems for
patients and institutions and hinder the provision of quality healthcare
services.1,10 It is possible to provide forensic nursing services at an
optimal level by training professionals with adequate knowledge in
forensic nursing and offering training to nurses in forensic evidence.
When we look at the average knowledge scores of students on for-
ensic evidence, we see that the knowledge scores of women are higher
than those of men (Table 1). When we look at the literature, we come
across different results related to gender.33,34 The fact that men are
more aware than women could be due to the extensive studies of men
on this topic, the difference in the personalities of men and women
while choosing topics in daily conversations or the exchange of in-
formation with other colleagues.
It is a positive finding that students found the training partly sa-
tisfactory after the training in the study (Table 1). This finding is im-
portant in showing that the issue of forensic evidence is sufficiently
emphasized during training. Nurses who do not have sufficient
knowledge of forensic evidence may fail to notice evidence and may not
be able to take necessary approaches towards forensic cases.18,25,35,36
Therefore, it is important to give forensic evidence training to nurses so
that they can create awareness for forensic nursing. It is quite important
for nurses to find crimes and criminal findings in forensic cases, to re-
lieve victims and to train them about the contribution of criminal
findings to the law.5–7,10,37 When we examine the studies carried out
with the related nurses, in the study conducted by İlçe et al.,24 it was
revealed that more than half of 44 health professionals working in the
Emergency Department did not receive any training on forensic nur-
sing. Çalışkan and Özden21 noted that 73% of Turkish health profes-
sionals did not receive any training on forensic cases and that 17.5% of
the participants who were trained in that field told that the training was
insufficient in the study conducted in order to determine the knowledge
level in forensic evidence. The cause of lack of knowledge may be due
to the fact that forensic nursing is not included as a course in the un-
dergraduate curriculum in Turkey.
We see that students started to encounter more forensic cases after
taking the course (Table 1). Emergency departments are the clinics
where nurses encounter forensic cases most frequently. It is inevitable
for nurses to face forensic cases in all departments, however.11,31 For
this reason, the lack of information about forensic cases prevents the
recognition of such forensic cases. Therefore, we can say that students
have become more aware of the diagnosis and treatment of forensic
cases after taking the course of forensic nursing.
An increase has been witnessed following the education in students’
beliefs in the necessity of forensic case education for their profession
89
Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine 66 (2019) 86–90
(Table 2). Although forensic nursing is a new field, the necessity of the
approach of students towards forensic cases for the profession of nur-
sing is extremely important in terms of the results of our study. The
ability of forensic nurses to discover and collect forensic evidence is
crucial in preventing incorrect, missing or incomplete evidence and
eliminating ambiguity.5,6,25 Nurses are faced with forensic cases in the
departments they work in, especially in the emergency department.
They need to have knowledge and skills in this subject in order to
evaluate forensic cases and to take appropriate action. It was also noted
in the studies that the best way to acquire the knowledge and skills is by
including the course of forensic nursing in the nursing curri-
culum.8,10,38–40
It was observed that the level of reading books, following up on
regular publications, conducting research, and watching TV series on
forensic cases had increased after students took courses on forensic
nursing (Table 2). This finding is important as it shows us the effec-
tiveness of training given on forensic evidence. This result suggests that
the training given to the students on forensic evidence increased the
social awareness and interest of students in forensic cases and that it
was an effective training.
It was revealed that the rate of awareness of Article 280 of the TCL,
which was 50% before the training, had risen to 84.7% after the
training (Table 2). According to the Article 280 of the TCL, medical staff
are responsible for reporting to judicial authorities a judicial case and
the patients who received medical treatment in this regard. Otherwise,
they are considered to be committing an offense. Even though nurses
lack knowledge on Article 280 of the TCL in the studies carried out,21,41
it is a positive finding that half of the students have heard about the
article and that this rate had increased after they received the training.
The fact that students have knowledge of the obligation of notification
makes it easier to identify and determine forensic cases. It is important
for nurses to make good judgments about the forensic cases they en-
counter and to inform the relevant judicial authorities.
It is nothing new for nurses to encounter forensic cases. However, it
is quite important that nurses have enough knowledge, understanding
and skills to notice forensic cases, and to identify, collect, store and
record evidence. Forensic nursing training should be emphasized more
in nursing programs in order to have knowledge, understanding and
skills.
5. Conclusions
In the study, it was determined that a forensic nursing course given
to students had a positive impact on their knowledge on forensic evi-
dence and increased their knowledge level in a positive way. Thus, it is
recommended that forensic nursing courses be added to the nursing
curriculum as an elective or compulsory course, that participation in
certified courses after graduation be supported, and that graduate
education in forensic nursing be fostered.
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding
agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Conflicts of interest
There are no financial or other relations that could lead to a conflict
of interest.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.jflm.2019.06.012.
D. Özden, et al.
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