Abdool Nomusa N T, Brysiewicz Petra
School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.
J Emerg Nurs. 2009 Jan;35(1):16-21. doi: 10.1016/j.jen.2008.02.003. Epub 2008 Jun 27.
South Africa has unenviable rates of violent crime and low rates of conviction and prosecution. Contributing to this is the poor collection of medical evidence by health workers.
A quantitative exploratory descriptive survey using a questionnaire was carried out with nurses, either registered or enrolled with the South African Nursing Council, who had a minimum of 6 months experience in the Emergency Department. The Emergency Departments of two provincial (state) and two private hospitals, as well as two comprehensive care clinics (state) were used.
The findings revealed that most of the forensic tasks to be performed by the Emergency Department nurses were rated as never or seldom done and this was due to a lack of training and knowledge in the field of forensic nursing. The respondents did however indicate that forensic nursing was very important to their daily activities in the Emergency Departments.
Emergency nurses in South Africa are facing new challenges in acquiring the skills to effectively care for crime victims. It is becoming extremely important for these nurses to correctly manage the forensic evidence, as failure to do so can have far reaching legal consequences.
南非暴力犯罪率高得令人堪忧，而定罪和起诉率却很低。医护人员对医学证据收集不力是造成这种情况的一个原因。
采用问卷调查的方式，对南非护理委员会注册或登记在册、在急诊科至少有6个月工作经验的护士进行了一项定量探索性描述性调查。选取了两家省级（政府）医院、两家私立医院的急诊科，以及两家综合护理诊所（政府）。
调查结果显示，急诊科护士要执行的大多数法医任务被评为从未或很少进行，这是由于在法医护理领域缺乏培训和知识。不过，受访者表示法医护理对他们在急诊科的日常工作非常重要。
南非的急诊护士在掌握有效护理犯罪受害者的技能方面正面临新的挑战。对这些护士来说，正确管理法医证据变得极其重要，因为不这样做可能会产生深远的法律后果。
