525 N. Wolfe Street | Baltimore, MD 21205 | 410.955.7548
Summer 2006
Volume IV, Issue II
Special Issue: Nursing Research With an Impact
Cover photo by
Chris Hartlove
Feature: Wounded Hearts, Broken Lives | < Previous Section
Forensic Research
Dan Sheridan, PhD, RN, FNE-A, FAAN, who started the School of Nursing's master's program in forensic nursing (one of just 10 in the nation), has seen his share of grisly injuries.
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Forensic Research |
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Name:
Daniel J. Sheridan, PhD, RN, FNE-A, FAAN |
to
train nurses to recognize abuse and neglect in vulnerable and
elderly people. Oversees Hopkins' master's program in forensic
nursing, one of 10 forensic nursing programs nationwide. Worked with
wife on battered women's hotline. "My wife's passion infected me,"
says Sheridan. For the last two years, the former president of the International Association of Forensic Nurses has been working on a $300,000 research program, funded by the Department of Justice, to develop a curriculum to teach others how to identify neglect and abuse in vulnerable and elderly people.
Sheridan sees the project as a kind of bridge—connecting the research findings he's made in the latest assessment and intervention strategies with nursing students who will be able to put them into practice in clinical settings. Through his research-based curriculum, for example, students learn that the shape of a bruise can indicate the difference between an intentional or accidental injury. They also learn the importance of taking detailed notes, since these can be used in court as evidence for the prosecution.
This past spring, Sheridan tested his curriculum in a pilot course that met weekly and drew nurses from across Maryland. The two-credit course will become available to nurses nationwide this year, and he hopes to offer it on CD-ROM to further expand its reach.
A jovial man, Sheridan arrived at his course one day last April wearing an M&M tie that shows a piece of candy playing the blues. "I wear this tie to remind all of you to take good notes," he says. "Because when you are a nurse, what you observe and what's in your notes is important."
Cathy Daggett, a registered nurse who works for Maryland's Kent County Health Department, says that Sheridan's research-based instruction about family violence and elder abuse has been invaluable. She was only halfway through the course when she received a panicked call from an elderly woman, who complained about recent, bizarre behavior by her husband.
Daggett visited the home and interviewed family members to discover that the husband had been keeping the 80-year-old woman up nightly for a month, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., hitting her and screaming at her. "They had had a rough relationship," she says, "but to my knowledge, he had never hit her before."
She got in touch with the elderly man's doctor. He was evaluated and found to be having an adverse reaction to a change in his medication. "I was able to look at the situation more objectively because of the course," Daggett says. "Every working nurse in the country should have this training."
