Virginia A Lynch

Virginia A. Lynch promotes global training and credentialing for forensic nurses – both to ensure a standard of care and to elevate the application of forensic science to nursing practice, while establishing the role of the forensic nurse in health care of communities around the world. She began writing her thesis in the 1980's, and completed it in 1990 at the University of Texas at Arlington. She then published her seminal work entitled, "Clinical Forensic Nursing: A Descriptive Study in Role Development." She conceptualized nurses as torchbearers for the improvement of medical-forensic practice, and she led the way by taking the forensic nursing role global. She has been a pioneer throughout her nursing career. During the 1980's, she established the first post-sexual assault care clinic in Parker County, Texas. She has also served as a county medico-legal death investigator in the state of Georgia. In 1991, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) asked that she define the practice of forensic nursing and establish a place for forensic nurses in the organization. Forensic nursing gained specialty recognition by the American Nurses Association (ANA) in 1995. In 2018, a cadre of forensic nursing professionals with more than 500 cumulative years of experience in nursing and more than 240 years of experience in forensic nursing practice came together to take up her vision for the future, and the Academy of Forensic Nursing (AFN) was born.

“As is often the case, when a radical improvement in healthcare takes place, one visionary emerges” - Virginia A. Lynch