Forensic practices performed by nurses in emergency and urgent care for people in situations of violence: scoping review.

Objective: to map the forensic practices performed by nurses in emergency and urgent care units when assisting victims of violence.

Method: This is a scoping review conducted in compliance with the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines, following the PRISMA diagram. Documents in Portuguese, English, and Spanish were analyzed, excluding those with restricted access. Data extraction was performed by two independent researchers, with a third acting as a mediator to resolve inconsistencies.

Results: The nursing care provided to victims of violence revealed convergences among the different types of violence addressed in the 30 studies analyzed, which were published in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. The findings were systematized into three analytical categories: forensic practices performed, types of evidence collected and preserved, and challenges reported by professionals.

Conclusion: This study successfully mapped the forensic practices executed by nurses. In emergency and urgent care settings, these professionals perform crucial forensic actions, including humanized reception, detailed anamnesis, and evidence preservation. However, they face significant barriers, such as the absence of updated protocols, insufficient operational infrastructure, and a lack of specific training. Notably, even without formal forensic specialization, the practices observed demonstrate a notable alignment with the recommendations for forensic nurses.