Junior Resident
Identify a Mentor
As a junior resident, you should identify a mentor in your program who has a working relationship with law enforcement or other frontline city officials, or who serves as a medical director to a sexual assault nurse examiner department. Work with your mentor to obtain educational opportunities and certification in forensic medicine, or determine opportunities for law enforcement education or research projects. If your program has no mentors in forensic medicine, you can join the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Forensic Medicine Section and seek mentors from experts in forensic emergency medicine (EM).
Become Involved in Forensic Projects or Research
A project or research in forensics does not necessarily need to be an extensive project, but a project in improving forensic care or methods in child abuse; elder abuse; sexual abuse and assault; or traumatic injuries related to criminal activity such as police-involved firearm injury, criminal or gang-related firearm injury, or sexual assault. Junior residents should work with their mentor to identify areas of forensic research the resident can assist or use as a scholarly project.
Insider Advice
"Forensic emergency medicine is the application of forensic medical knowledge and appropriate techniques to living patients in the emergency department. Nowadays, most trauma patients seen in emergency room settings are victims. They are not victims of happenstance or accident, but of malice and intent at the hands of assailants...given that this is the new reality of our patient population, physicians must practice medicine in particular trauma medicine in a new way, with attention to details heretofore overlooked. What was once considered confounding clutter that gets in the way of patient care takes on a whole new significance when recognized for what it really is - evidence."
-William S. Smock, MD
