This is a shout out to De McCormick, and the SAFE HARBOR team in Ventura county, who is really on the cutting edge of care in the California Ventura County area. Their forensic team cares for our military population when incidents of sexual assault occur at Port Hueneme and/or Point Mugu, and they do a wonderful job.
I had lunch with De McCormick today, who is a savvy and experienced sexual assault examiner with a lot of energy. Today she showed me their beautiful facility near the Ventura Community hospital. It was absolutely fantastic. I was also introduced to 5 additional team members who are all excited about constantly improving their practice and remaining excellent in all they do. They have a very good peer review system, and all of the nurse examiners seem to work very well/get along very well as a team.
They get a big Navy "HooYah!" from me and I'm excited about the innovative work they are doing. Barriers for them have been funding for equipment they've wanted to update, but they have pushed forward and it seems as if after long last the funding will be coming.
I encourage everyone in sexual assault care and other aspects of forensic nursing, not stay with the status quo of forensic care, or settle with what is considered the national standard, but to constantly look at improvement methods that you can support with evidence based research. In addition, start putting together a good picture of your own community clientele. Learn to know and describe your overall population. Look at the time you care for that population and how much time you spend preparing for court. It may be you can full justify an increase in salary and a reasonable call-time payment once you've put the pieces together. Forensic nurses should receive what they are worth. Often their expertise is taken for granted, and it is expertise that is gained only after taking many classes ($) and spending hours on call. This IS a specialty area that deserves appropriate recognition in the community.
For all forensic nurses: Continue the hard work, fighting the good fight and know you are doing great things!
*****
*Disclaimer: This blog is solely the opinions and experiences expressed by the author and in no way reflects the opinions, policies or beliefs of the U.S. Government, the DoD or United States Navy.
