Forensic nursing is a cornerstone of emergency medicine, connecting the dots between clinical treatment, trauma-informed care and health care justice. Emergency Nursing 2026 offers multiple
Kelly Monestero, MSN, RN, CEN
sessions focused on this critical specialty.
One Team, One Path: Transforming Child Abuse Response Via Hospital-CAC Partnership
Oct. 1, 10-11 a.m.
A child who has been victimized deserves better than piecemeal care doled out in multiple locations. A quality model relies on a collaborative, hyper-local safety net of sexual assault nurse examiners, law enforcement and child advocacy center specialists, ideally under one roof.
In their presentation “One Team, One Path: Transforming Child Abuse Response via Hospital-CAC Partnership,” Kelly Monestero, MSN, RN, CEN, director of operations for emergency department and medical surgical observation at Northwestern Medicine McHenry & Woodstock Hospital in McHenry, Illinois, and Kelly Klein, MSN, CEN, SANE-A, SANE-P, Northwestern Medicine North/Northwest Region SANE/SAFE coordinator, will examine the current gaps in care and how they can be remedied.
The presenters will take attendees through their own frustrating journey observing child abuse victims receiving fragmented care. “Those children were seen at the child advocacy center, but then they were sent out of the community to hospitals that were far away to have their medical exams done,” Monestero recalled.
Erin Aschman, BSN, RN, SANE-A, GFN-C
Attendees will learn how Monestero and Klein partnered with a local child advocacy center, or CAC, to ensure children are able to meet with a forensic interviewer, have a medical exam if needed, speak to a social worker, work with law enforcement and receive advocacy services – all in a seamless, holistic manner.
Hidden in Plain Sight: Recognizing and Responding to Strangulation in the ED
Sept. 30, 8:15-9 a.m.
“Strangulation patients are already in your waiting room, and they may not look like they are acutely ill,” said Erin Aschman, BSN, RN, SANE-A, GFN-C, manager of the forensic nurse examiner program at the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora. “Half have no visible injury and most are never going to use the word strangled. The ones that we miss are at sharply elevated risk of being killed by that same partner.”
These sobering facts are the reason Aschman is co-leading the session “Hidden in Plain Sight: Recognizing and Responding to Strangulation in the ED” with Alexis Clendenin, BSN, RN, CCRN, GFN-C, associate manager of the forensic nurse examiner program at the University of Colorado Hospital and Highlands Ranch Hospital in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. Session attendees will delve into how screening language, triaging and physiological imaging affect whether strangulation is detected and how much patients choose to reveal. The session will cover sexual choking that patients may consider consensual but which, like nonconsensual strangulation, can cause injuries to the neck and brain and increase the risk of stroke.
Alexis Clendenin, BSN, RN, CCRN, GFN-C
”We’re going to give nurses the tools to learn how to ask these questions in a trauma-informed way that doesn’t show any judgment,” Clendenin said.
Spotlight on Forensic Nursing: Understanding the Federal Policy Intersection Between Health Care and Justice
Oct. 1, 10:15-11 a.m.
Forensic nursing is not just evidence collection for later use by law enforcement but rather a multifaceted field, encompassing a range of emotional and physical needs of the whole patient.
Seasoned forensic nurses as well as newbies or those who are curious will want to attend the session “Spotlight on Forensic Nursing: Understanding the Federal Policy Intersection Between Health Care and Justice,” presented by Sylvia Kornegay, a public policy advisor specializing in health care.
Sylvia Kornegay
“The field of forensic nursing is in this place where it’s viewed as a criminal justice function rather than a health care function,” Kornegay said, adding that this can change if nurses advocate for new policies.
Kornegay’s presentation will touch on how medical forensic health care fits into the federal policy landscape, policy challenges and why forensic nurses are critical to political engagement and advocacy.