In this Bell Works Talk, Executive Director, Scott Henderson, discusses the history and evolution of National DEC.  Scott also discusses National DEC's updated mission and vision statement, as well as National DEC's new definition.  Scott discusses how the DEC Approach is being used across the United States, as well as new tools, apps, and other resources that National DEC has to offer.

Lt. (Ret.) Eric Nation, discusses the importance law enforcement involvement in the DEC mission, as well the positive impact the DEC mission has on children, families, and communities.   Eric also discusses the importance and the connection of having Law Enforcement and Forensic Nurses as part of a collaborative DEC alliance.  Eric discusses the importance of early identification of drug endangered children, as well as the importance of a DEC Alliance.

Stacee Read, BA, MSW, discusses the importance of child welfare involvement in the DEC mission, as well as the importance of the DEC mission for communities and disciplines.  Stacee also discusses the importance of collaboration and connection of having Child Welfare and Forensic Nurses as part of a local DEC Alliance.  Stacee discusses the scope of the DEC problem, understanding what community members and professionals should be looking for and who to contact.  Stacee shares about the National DEC Roadmap and Toolkit and how it is used in  developing DEC Alliances by using awareness, implementation, and institutionalization.  Stacee shares the trainings offered by the National DEC.  Stacee wraps things up with the partnership between National DEC and the Academy of Forensic Nursing and the importance of this partnership to being successful.

Scott Henderson, National DEC Executive Director.  Scott joined National DEC on February 24, 2020, as a full-time Executive Director. He brings 21 years of nonprofit executive leadership experience to the organization. For fifteen years he served as the executive director for organizations that provided experiential education, leadership development and developed partnerships with organizations serving children and youth at risk. For the next five years, he served organizations in the transition leading strategic planning, board and staff development and clarifying mission, vision, and service.

Stacee starting working for National DEC as a consultant in November 2011 and then was hired as the Director of DEC Network Development in May 2013.  She is responsible for the development and oversight of State and Tribal DEC Alliances, and she provides technical assistance to National DEC network. Stacee is also an integral member of the training team and has participated in curriculum, online training, and publication development.   Additionally, she has trained thousands of professionals on topics involving child welfare issues, collaboration and multidisciplinary teams, evidence/information collection, local alliance development, and other specific drug issues.

Lieutenant (Retired) Eric Nation began his career in law enforcement in 1994 where he has held numerous positions, Correctional Officer, Police Officer, Deputy Sheriff, Lieutenant Deputy Sheriff, as was as 6 years in a undercover narcotics unit and then was Commander of that unit for 5 years.

Resources:

Be sure to visit our website at www.nationaldec.org for current information, resources, publications, and more to assist you! And please contact use anytime at info@nationaldec.org.

Episode 24: Forensic Nursing and Drug Endangered Children (DEC)

In this Bell Work Talks, AFN’s very own School and Public Health Nurse Special Interest Group members discuss their maverick workings of addressing the need and desire to implement forensic education into school nursing practice and improving the identification, response, and care of students impacted by violence.

Jen has been a nurse since 1999. She has worked in multiple health care settings including Med-Surg, ICU, Critical care, Acute care, Pediatrics, Emergency Room, Management, Home Health, and School Nursing. She served in the United States Air Force as a nurse.  In 2008, she obtained her MSN from the Beth-El College of Nursing at University of Colorado-Colorado Springs as a Forensic Clinical Nurse Specialist and a Forensic Certificate in Death Scene and Investigation. 

Jen has served as an educator/consultant for the US Air Force Academy Response Team and has been a member of several forensic task forces to include sexual assault, elder abuse, and gangs. She is a member of the Academy of Forensic Nursing (AFN) and International Association of Forensic Nurses (IAFN) and is certified as a Sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) in both Adult/Adolescent and Pediatrics. From 2009-2011, she served as President-Elect, President, and Past President for the Colorado Chapter of IAFN. She also updated several forensic policies within the military and hospital setting and has presented several forensic topics such as sexual assault, interpersonal violence, filicide, medical-forensic care, non-accidental pediatric trauma, and non-fatal strangulation across multiple healthcare settings. 

Jen currently works as a SANE at Denver Health Medical Center and is the chairperson for the school and public health nurse special interest group for AFN. Her vision is to introduce medical-forensic care to the school and public health setting to initiate prevention, early intervention, and support the need and expand the role of forensic nursing.

Amanda obtained her AND degree in 2016. She is currently employed with Purdue Polytechnic High School in Indianapolis, IN as a school nurse. Prior to this, Amanda was a nurse for pediatric private practice. Amanda also has a degree in Early Childhood Education with 19 years of experience and completed her BSN at the University of Indianapolis in 2022. Amanda became a member of AFN in 2019 with the intend of becoming a members of the School and Public Health Special Interest Group in order to promote early intervention practices in the school setting. Amanda is a child passenger safety technician (CPST) and is passionate about pediatric/adolescent health.

Kristin Beers, MSN, RN, SANE has been a nurse in Central Kentucky for over 35 years. Her varied background in Orthopedics, Neurosciences, Pediatrics, Case Management, Home Infusion and Utilization Review prepared her for her most favorite specialties, School Nursing and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE).

Kristin became familiar with sexual assault response teams (SART) and SANE nursing while in graduate school and she was a hospital advocate for several years which allowed her to observe multiple levels of care before she became a SANE in 2017. She has used her experience as a student, an advocate and a SANE to develop presentations regarding the intersectionality of healthcare, forensics, and social emotional healing. She likes to think that her SANE clinic is where the healing begins.

Kristin is currently employed by an elementary school in central Kentucky and the Lexington SANE Program housed at the Lexington Division of Police in Lexington, Kentucky.

Resources:

https://goafn.thinkific.com/- School nurse boot camp
https://www.goafn.org/- Info about AFN and SIG

Episode 43: Bridging the Gap Between the Nursing Forensic Field and the School Nurse Setting

In this episode, Dr. Inaba discusses the history and importance of STOP THE BLEED®. From its origins in the military to its lifesaving ability for everyday injuries, STOP THE BLEED® can help anyone be prepared to respond in an emergency. Dr. Inaba shares why STOP THE BLEED® is important for forensic nurses and their patients, and how to learn more about the program and get trained.

Kenji Inaba MD, FACS, FRCSC, is Chair of the American College of Surgeons STOP THE BLEED® Steering Committee. He is a Professor and Vice Chair of Surgery, the General Surgery Program Director, and the Chief of Trauma, Emergency Surgery, and Surgical Critical Care at Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California. Dr. Inaba is also Chief Surgeon and a sworn reserve officer with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Resources:

STOP THE BLEED® website: https://www.stopthebleed.org/
STOP THE BLEED® online interactive course: https://www.stopthebleed.org/training/online-course/ 
STOP THE BLEED® in-person course search: https://cms.bleedingcontrol.org/class/search 
History of STOP THE BLEED®: https://www.stopthebleed.org/our-story/

Episode 44: STOP THE BLEED®: What forensic nurses & patients need to know about this lifesaving prog

In this Bell Work Talks, Dr. Rosenblatt discusses personal experience and proven training strategies that are making a difference in human trafficking and domestic violence.

Dr. Rosenblatt is an Author, Consultant, Trainer and Public Speaker. Board Member-There Is HOPE For Me, Inc.(2011). Dr. Kat created a nonprofit from survivors to survivors™ of human trafficking providing peer mentoring, rescue and restoration, operating in Florida. She has over ten-years of experience empowering survivors of sex & labor trafficking and domestic violence. She has created survivor empowerment workshops and led support groups for adults and minor survivors of sex and labor trafficking. She is an international trainer and speaker. She has developed a human trafficking wheel and assessment tool identifying trafficking within schools. She has created a survivor leadership life coaching program. Dr. Kat has written two books on human trafficking. Dr. Kat has been featured in the Vatican News in 2021 as well as several other articles and news stories worldwide. Research conducted in collaboration with the Thorn Foundation on their 2015 & 2018 studies. Dr. Kat also has a personal testimony of overcoming human trafficking and abuse from the time she was just 13 years of age to 17. Throughout her early life, she experienced several trafficking experiences, each one leaving her with more wounds, abuses, and addictions; recruited first at a hotel in Miami Beach to meet the demands of sex tourists, then through a friend in her middle school to a more organized crime trafficking ring in Miami run by notorious drug lords. After escaping her initial trafficking experiences and drug addiction, she found herself pregnant by a Colombian Cartel family member which soon led her to marry into a domestic violence relationship. This ended in a twenty-year abusive marriage where Kat says that ‘Leaving was harder than staying in that relationship and family’. With so many triumphs over unbeatable obstacles, Dr. Kat is now a much sought-after speaker and trainer in the areas of human trafficking and domestic violence as well as an inspirational leader to women everywhere.

Resources:

Dr. Kat’s books may be purchased at: https://www.thereishopeforme.org/stolen-the-book/

Stolen: The True Story of a Sex Trafficking Survivor (Baker Publishing)

Trafficking in America : The Most Undetected Human Rights Violation of Our Time (Lambert Publishing).

There Is HOPE For Me, Inc

Speaker Website:www.DrKat.net
Bookings: info@DrKat.net Nonprofit Website:

Episode 45: There is Hope for me

In this Bell Work Talks, Dr. Joyce Williams discusses how standards impact professional practice, what the main purpose is and how it directs professional nursing practice. 

This is followed by a review of the forensic nursing subcommittee of the Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science (OSAC), whose goal is to strengthen the discipline’s use of forensic science by drafting standards related to all forms of violence. The team structure strives to provide a robust analysis of each aspect of forensic nursing care that leaves no unanswered questions when caring for a victim of violence and the prosecution of a case.

Dr. Joyce Williams received her Doctor of Nursing Practice from the University of Tennessee in forensic nursing. Focusing on injury prevention, her research includes swabbing of the mouth for forensic DNA and reducing combat morbidity and mortality through improved protective armor for the military members. She is an active member of the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team (DMORT). As a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing she serves on the expert panels: violence and quality health care. 

She chairs the forensic nursing subcommittee for OSAC (Organization of Scientific Area Committees), and the Forensic Nursing Science Section in the American Academy of Forensic Science (AAFS). She is a reviewer for the Journal of Forensic Nursing and Journal of Doctoral Nursing Practice. Additional service includes the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force Victim Services Committee, the Baltimore County Human Trafficking work group, educator for medical providers on identification and protocols to use with trafficked individuals, and Board member - Partnership for a Safer Maryland.

Episode 46: A Look at Standards, the Organization of Scientific Area Committees

In this Bell Work Talk, Pam Marcus discusses a comprehensive assessment of an individual who is potentially violent, using the Brøset Violent Checklist as well as interventions that can reduce this dangerous behavior.

Ms. Marcus is an Advanced Practice Nurse Psychotherapist in Private Practice in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. She provides psychotherapy to individuals and families experiencing a variety of diagnoses, such as Anxiety Disorders, PTSD, Personality Disorders, Gender Dysphoria, Substance Use Disorder and Affect Disorders.  

Resources:

Please contact Kathy Bell at kbell@afnmail.org if you would like the list of resources.

Episode 47: Assessment And Prevention of Violence: How to Care for Angry Patients

In this Bell Work Talk, Dr. Neville and Julia Bonfim discuss the emergent public health threat regarding the infiltration of the adulterant xylazine in illicit drugs. A brief overview of the opioid epidemic worsened by fentanyl will be discussed and the impact of the adulterant xylazine will be presented. The historical development of xylazine use, identification of potential xylazine use and implications for nursing practice will be presented.

Kathleen Neville is associate dean for graduate studies and research at Seton Hall University College of Nursing in Nutley, New Jersey, and principal investigator of two Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grants, the Seton Hall University and Hackensack School of Medicine Expanded Interprofessional Medication-Assistant Treatment Training Program. This grant is designed to train medical, nurse practitioner and physician assistant students to provide medication assisted treatment to individuals with opioid use disorders.

Julia Bonfim is the project coordinator overseeing the grant to train nurse practitioners and physician assistant students at Seton Hall University and Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, and medical students at the Hackensack School of Medicine in Nutley, New Jersey, to treat individuals with opioid use disorders.

Resources:

Manuscript: Infiltration of xylazine in illicit fentanyl, By Kathleen Neville, PhD, RN, FAAN and Julia Bonfim, MPA, published in American Nurse Journal. 2023; 18(11). Doi: 10.51256/ANJ112340, © 2023 HealthCom Media. All rights reserved. Link to manuscript: https://www.myamericannurse.com/infiltration-of-xylazine-in-illicit-fentanyl/

Episode 48: Infiltration of xylazine in illicit fentanyl use

In this Bell Work Talk, Dr. Clements and Ms. Varto will discuss that it is important to continually educate forensic nurses with evolving forensic nursing science, as forensic nursing now approaches being a formally established specialty for 30 years (American Nurses Association recognized Forensic Nursing as a specialty in 1995), it is additionally incumbent for our members to educate others, both interprofessionally and intraprofessionally. As the unique base of forensic nursing science continues to expand, it is critically important for our professional members to share that information to enhance nursing care to both victims and offenders across all settings – not just those settings that may be specifically or directly considered to be “forensic” in nature.  This podcast provides several case examples of how forensic nursing knowledge was shared with other healthcare professionals, both intra and inter professionally, in order to heighten awareness toward enhanced and targeted assessment and intervention for patients in healthcare scenarios that may not have necessarily been considered to be acutely forensic, yet, certainly could have medico-legal implications.

Paul Thomas Clements is a forensic psychiatric clinical specialist, a Certified Gang Specialist, and Certified in Danger Assessment. Practicing in the forensic nursing arena for over 30 years, Clements has provided consultation for hospital systems, EMTs, Child Protective Agency personnel, trauma/emergency nurses, psychiatric providers, academic and corporate settings – each regarding vulnerability risk assessment, target-hardening, and decreasing the number of violent incidents in the workplace, as well as bullying and the subsequent sequelae. Clements has provided consultation to public school systems and other child-related agencies related to child abuse assessment, and also related to the aftermath of violence and/or violent death (including homicide of a child and gang-related deaths) for teachers and other classmates. Clements has three upcoming edited textbooks: Gender Violence Across the Spectrum: A Trauma-Informed Approach, Mental Health Issues in Child Maltreatment: A New Perspective, and Violence Against Women: Contemporary Examination of Domestic Violence.  Additionally, he has numerous peer-review publications, and a significant number of conference presentations – nationally and internationally – that address assessment and intervention related to the neurobiology of trauma, interpersonal violence and aggression, coping after a violent death, safety assessment, and exposure to interpersonal violence and crime.

Nurse Practitioner Hannah Varto works in and led the development of Canada’s only outpatient, rapid access specialty clinic providing medical-forensic care to survivors of recent violence. She is an instructor for the local post-secondary forensic health sciences department and a co-investigator in a number of research studies specific to brain injury from head impacts and strangulation in survivors of recent violence.

Episode 49: Translating Forensic Nursing Science to the Larger Healthcare Community

In this Bell Work Talk, Dr. Francine Bono-Neri, who is the Co-founder and President of Nurses United Against Human Trafficking, will discuss the vital work of this professional association and how the need is dire to get Anti-Human Trafficking Training into not only state mandated continuing education, but its incorporation into prelicensure nursing education. She will discuss the massive intersection of human trafficking with healthcare and how we, as healthcare professionals, are failing this population.

Dr. Francine Bono-Neri, a proud member of the nursing profession for 32 years, is a pediatric nurse practitioner, academic nurse educator, trained sexual assault nurse examiner, researcher, published author, invited speaker, health policy advocate, and nurse leader. She served as a Director-at-Large for the American Nurses Association for the State of New York, and as President for the Long Island Chapter of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners. Dr. Bono-Neri is the recipient of the prestigious Jane Eleanor Knox N.E.F. National Scholarship, and was awarded a Nassau County Legislature Citation for her extraordinary efforts in serving her former hometown community. Dr. Bono-Neri is the Co-founder and President of Nurses United Against Human Trafficking, P.A., a professional association created for the sole purpose of abolishing modern-day slavery by educating, equipping, and empowering healthcare professionals on anti-trafficking measures.

Resources:

www.nuaht.org

www.nursesunitedagainsthumantrafficking.org

Nursing students' knowledge of and exposure to human trafficking 
content in undergraduate curricula - ScienceDirect https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0260691723002149?via%3Dihub

Recently Established Scholarships (n-e-f.org) https://n-e-f.org/about-us/recently-established-scholarships.html

Episode 50: Addressing the Intersection of Human Trafficking in Healthcare

In this Bell Work Talk, Dr. Bhattarai discusses the impacts of mindfulness practices on forensic nurses. This podcast offers a range of practical tools that forensic nurses can incorporate into their daily clinical practices and personal lives.

Dr. Bhattarai is a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Nursing at Texas A&M University. She has an academic background in nursing, psychology, and rehabilitation counseling. With expertise in mental health, mindfulness, and well-being research in people with chronic illnesses and disabilities, Dr. Bhattarai has expanded her research focus to the crucial intersection of mindful self-care and the unique needs of forensic nurses. As she delved deeper into her research and engaged with various populations, it became increasingly evident that forensic nurses could greatly benefit from mindfulness-based self-care. She recently led a comprehensive narrative review exploring the potential benefits of mindfulness among forensic nurses. Her paper provided a diverse array of practical mindfulness tools for forensic nurses. She is dedicated to designing mindfulness-based self-care strategies and integrating mindfulness practices within forensic nursing education. 

Resources:

Bhattarai, M., Clements, P. T., & Downing, N. R. (2023). Mindfulness-based self-care for forensic nurses: A professional lifestyle approach. Journal of Forensic Nursing. Advanced Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.1097/JFN.0000000000000456

Episode 51: Mindfulness-based Tools for Forensic Nurses

In this Bell Work Talk, Hillary Benanzer, data analyst at TAT, will discuss the realities of human trafficking; the role of key industries and agencies in the anti-human trafficking movement; and how individuals can fight this crime as professionals and as community members.

Benanzer completed her master’s degree in criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati, with a concentration in law enforcement and crime prevention. At the University of Cincinnati, she contributed research efforts to the field of human trafficking and published research on county-level correlates of human trafficking arrest levels in the state. In her role as data analyst for TAT, Benanzer collects, analyzes and disseminates relevant data to enhance TAT’s training materials and facilitate systems change. Along with educating on the realities of human trafficking, she works to navigate development and collaboration with colleagues to implement TAT's vision across the nation.

Resources:

TAT Training Library
https://tatnonprofit.org/training-library/

Community Resources: 
https://tatnonprofit.org/community-resources/

TAT App:
http://bit.ly/TATApp

Episode 24: Forensic Nursing and Drug Endangered Children (DEC)

Bell Work Talks - from Academy of Forensic Nursing