Forensic Nursing Science Section—Moving Forward 2023–24

From Our 2023 Business Meeting:

• Section Secretary — Amy Carney provided an interview for the FNSS web page
• Our reception was held in conjunction with the General Section
• Awards presented at the business meeting were:
  • Virginia Lynch Nurse Innovator Award — Patricia Speck, DNSc
  • Forensic Nurse Scientist Award — Julie Valentine, PhD

Our section began with 46 members: 9 Fellows, 7 Members, 27 Associate Members, and 4 Retired Fellows. We now have 26 new Members for a current membership of 72.

Several international attendees attended the business meeting as well as FNSS presentations.

The Policy & Procedure Manual (PPM) is a very important guide for everyone as it delineates the responsibilities of chairs, co-chairs, and members and what they should be doing over the course of the year. There is an Academy PPM and we also have a section PPM.

Financial Report: The section was given $2,000 as seed money as a new section. Our budget grows by members (% of our dues), by donations, and through workshops at the Academy conferences. Vendor support is welcome. This year we had a $2,500 donation from ger911.com — a company that provides sexual assault kit tracking. We also had a donation from Amanda Sozar of SNA International.

How you can become involved:

1. Update your personal profile so it is available to the section leadership
2. Section Volunteer opportunities:

• Awards Committee: Chair — Diana Faugno, MSN
• Membership Committee: Chair — Stacy Drake, PhD, MPH, RN
• Reception Committee: Chair — Katherine Scafide, PhD (we need a co-chair)
• Program Committee: Chair — Kelly Berishaj, DNP; Co-Chair — Laura La Cagnina, DNP, MSN, RN
• The Program Committee is always looking for volunteers to review abstracts and to schedule moderators for the various sessions during the meeting

• Abstracts — reviewers
• Workshops — moderators and attendance recorders
  • Breakfast/Lunch presentations
  • Case presentations
  • Webinars

• Nominating: Chair — Nancy Cabelus, DNP(must be a Fellow for this committee)

Ad hoc committees:

• Research Committee: Chair — Victor Petreca, PhD, DNP
• Reference Committee:
• Newsfeed: Chair — Janet Barber; Co-Chair — Stacey Mitchell, DNP, MBA
• Minutes Review Committee: Chair — Amy Carney, PhD
• Regional Representative Committee:
• Webpage career section created by members Carrie Edwards, RN, PhD and Deborah Stone, PhD

Academy Liaisons:

• Kristine Karcher, BSN: Academy Mentorship Committee
• Carrie Edwards, RN, PhD: Representative for AAFS Connect Committee
• Jessica Volz, DNP: Lead for the Interdisciplinary Session
• Sylvia Perez, BSN: Representative for the Diversity Outreach

We thank everyone who is a volunteer; their time is both precious and scarce.

Read the latest article of interest to nurses:  Bogus Education Credentials by Bruce Sackman