Bennis (1959, 1959a) did not identify the theoretical framework for their research, however their descriptions are consistent with Kahn’s (1964) role theory originally described by Fain (1987). The basic premise of Kahn’s role theory was that people are exposed 16 to various expectations from their work environment. This environment includes the employing institution, members of one’s roles set, and individual expectations. Hazel (1985) introduced Sarbin’s (1968) role theory including the two concepts of intra-role conflict (e.g. nurse-midwife as both a nurse and midwife) and inter-role conflict (e.g. between the nurse-midwife and obstetric nurse). Sarbin defined role conflict as the situation of being in two or more positions concurrently, which requires contradictory role enactments. Others have referred to this as dualroles (Dupont & Parnis, 2003; Kent-Wilkinson 2008, 2009, Sekula, 2001) and dual-loyalty (Mason and Carton, 2002; Miles, 2009; Solomon, 2005). Role theory incorporates external role expectations, role conception, and role performance (Glover, et. al, 2006). External expectations include expectations by employers, colleagues/professional peers, and outside groups. Institutional expectations of forensic nurses may vary greatly by type of employer such as hospitals, community organizations, law enforcement agencies, state government, social services, for-profit companies, and more. Immediate colleagues and peers of forensic nurses include multidisciplinary professionals whose expectations may reflect differing priorities of their respective roles. Expectations of outside groups may include professional organizations, task forces, legislative committees, advisory boards, and members of the community itself. These groups may assume the forensic nurse shares priorities congruent with their goals. Expectations of self includes self-role conception of what should be. Role performance reflects what actually is - role conception may be based on the ideal role and role performance is based on the actual realized role. Employer expectations may potentially conflict with expectations of immediate colleagues or professional peers, expectations of outside groups and patients, as well as expectations of self. Interprofessional colleagues with different disciplinary roles therefore have 17 different loyalties and guiding codes of ethics. What these professionals expect of forensic nurses versus what forensic nurses expect of themselves (or actually do in practice) may also be in conflict. Other conflicts may arise from the expectations of fellow forensic nurses, non-forensic nurses, other members of the healthcare team, the multidisciplinary response team, etc. Simply put, when others do not understand the role of forensic nurses as forensic nursing understands it, role conflict and role confusion may occur. Additionally, self-role conception may be in conflict with role performance if the ideal is not realistically attainable (Benne & Bennis, 1959a). Although beyond the scope of this paper, considerations of the “CSI effect” (i.e., effect of exaggerated forensic and legal portrayals on television shows including inaccurate role depictions for forensic nurses and other multidisciplinary professionals) may contribute to discordant expectations. Role Confusion Arising from Nomenclature and Inconsistent Definitions Confusion arising from nomenclature and inconsistent definitions related to nursing in general is found in many areas of nursing literature. Examples of inconsistency include the use of the terms nurse specialist, advanced practice nursing, advanced nursing practice, and nurse practitioner. The American Nurses Association addresses pertinent ambiguity around the terms registered nurse, advanced practice registered nurse, and graduate level-prepared registered nurse and clarifies the expected competencies for practice standards for all three categories (ANA, 2015) The International Association of Forensic Nurses Scope and Standards Taskforce adopted the ANA definitions and methodology of differentiating role and expected standards in the Forensic Nursing Scope and Standards of Practice Draft recently submitted to ANA. For each forensic nursing practice standard, there are corresponding competencies for the registered 18 nurses, advanced practice registered nurses, and graduate level-prepared registered nurses. In spite of this, the forensic nursing specialty may contribute to nomenclature induced confusion internally through the use of various titles assigned at a practice level, subspecialty focus, or used throughout state or local legislation. For example, sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE), sexual assault forensic examiner (SAFE), and forensic nurse examiner (FNE) are all used to describe the forensic nursing sub-specialty role. However, FNE also is used interchangeably with forensic nursing specialist to describe the more generalized forensic nursing practice. In some jurisdictions, FNE also may refer to forensic nurses specializing in death investigation. To further compound this confusion, forensic nurse death investigators in one jurisdiction are referred to as forensic medical examiners which rightfully may be confused with the use of medical examiner to refer to physicians specializing in forensic pathology! Role Confusion Related to Specific Roles within Practice Setting After a comprehensive review of the literature for a