Preparedness and Practice of Forensic Nursing in Kenya

Forensic nursing has not been adopted in Kenya despite the fact that nurses work in settings requiring this knowledge. The Nursing Council syllabus calls for lectures in forensic nursing but lectures have neither been developed nor are there educators prepared to teach the unit. This study evaluated the preparedness and practice of forensic nursing in Kenya. It adopted a descriptive cross-sectional study design. Self-administered questionnaires, a focused group discussion and a key informant interview were utilized to collect data among 116 randomly sampled nurses from three hospitals and ten nurse educators. Quantitative data was analyzed using the SPSS version 20.0 and results presented using mean, standard deviation, and frequency distribution. P values of 0.05 or less were considered significant. Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The results indicated majority of the nurses had no training on forensic nursing science whatsoever even though they handle forensic patients on a daily basis. The nurses perceived training needs for forensic nursing practice included: advanced health assessment, evidence collection and documentation, forensic psychiatry, gender violence, legal implications of forensic nursing, theory and practice in forensic nursing. From these findings it can be concluded that Kenyan nurses lack skills needed to care for forensic patients and they would like to be trained in forensic nursing.