Lauren Wegener, RN
Nurse Educator
IDHI SANE Program
Lauren was nominated for all of her leadership and continuous volunteer efforts in forensic nursing that serves as a Community Service project.
Lauren’s continuous volunteer efforts are demonstrated through her role as a co-founder and secretary of the Arkansas Forensic Nurses Association, which was founded in 2021. As part of her endeavors, she advocated for and created a human trafficking and street nursing committee to navigate serving this vulnerable population where they are, which often is not within the walls of medical facilities. She also leads and publishes a quarterly statewide forensic nursing newsletter actively engaging in educating and informing nurses across the state about forensic nursing topics, news, and issues.
Lauren answers calls at all hours from nurses across the state who have questions or who are asking for her guidance. She also takes on planning our department nursing leadership retreat with a focus on fostering professional growth.
Lauren has an absolute passion for forensic nursing, graduating with her MSN in Forensic Nursing in August of 2023. While she has always gone above and beyond to make an impact in forensic nursing, she kicked into overdrive after completing her masters, and even collaborated with the FBI, Arkansas State Police as well as local law enforcement in human trafficking sting operations aiming to bring a trauma-informed, medical-forensic component to the response. Lauren has also chosen to take part in human trafficking responses around the world. In October of 2023, Lauren went to Nepal to work with other professionals to respond to human trafficking there and in India. Lauren also returned from a medical mission in Egypt in March of 2024. While there, she worked with a team of physicians and nurses to serve medical and medical-forensic needs in this area of the world.