INTRODUCTION
“Above all, realize that nursing care doesn’t have to stop because a patient has expired. We can do so much more for people who suffered questionable deaths by focusing on forensics. Nurses can help families gain closure and assist law enforcement with their investigations because we have cared enough to maintain the integrity of the evidence.” (Erricksen, 2008, p. 43) This quote from Debbie Rice, RN, NREMT, an emergency nurse at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, FL, could be used to help define the role of forensic nurses in death investigations. All nurses, first and foremost, must care for their patients. That caring does not end when the patient is dead, but can help the death investigator to the best job possible in assisting in investigating the cause and manner of death.
