PURPOSE: The purpose of this survey was to investigate emergency department nurses' recognition of forensics nursing and their educational needs for forensics nursing education.
METHODS: Data were collected via questionnaires from 167 emergency department nurses who were working in 7 university hospitals. Nurses' experiences of trauma or accidents and their recognition of and educational needs for forensic nursing education were assessed.
RESULTS: All subjects reported having suffered bodily injury due to falling or serious traffic accidents; 92.2% reported having suffered bodily injury caused by suicide attempts; 91.6% reported having experienced physical violence or abuse; 76.0% reported having experienced sexual assault or abuse; 68.9% reported having experienced some difficulties during their nursing care due to lack of forensics knowledge; and 88.6% reported never having been trained in forensics nursing. The educational needs score for "forensics nursing" was 3.61; the needs score for "abuse- and violence-related education" was 3.65; the needs score for "incident data collection related education" was 3.47; and the needs score for "forensics theory related education" was 3.34.