A degree in forensic nursing will prepare you to work as a nurse performing a number of specialized duties. While forensic nursing is a specialty within itself, you can be assigned a specific job, such as crisis intervention screener or sexual assault nurse examiner. Your forensic nursing degree will be useful in a number of different areas and each one has their own challenges and rewards.
Students might find a career as a correctional nursing specialist intriguing. Correctional nursing specialists provide quality health care to incarcerated individuals in jails, prisons, juvenile offender facilities and other correctional facilities. Correctional nursing specialists will tend to the sick, perform routine exams and give medication to chronically ill patients. Students may also be interested in forensic clinical nurse specialist positions, especially for those who already hold a master’s or doctoral degree in forensic nursing. Their advanced training and skills are used to serve as expert clinicians, teachers, researchers and administrators in various forensic settings. Clinical nurse specialists may work in emergency rooms, sexual assault examination programs or death investigation teams.
Another area that forensic nursing students would be eligible to work in is forensic gerontology. This group of specialists assist in the investigation of cases involving the neglect, abuse or unfair treatment of elders. They work in hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities designed to care for the elderly, while raising awareness about legal and human rights problems that exist in these care facilities and elsewhere. Legal nurse consultants are more involved in the legal aspects of forensics, by aiding attorneys working on civil cases where law and medicine intersect. From medical malpractice, personal injury, worker’s compensation to probate, legal nurse consultants are at the forefront of each medical-related case. Their job is to interpret the medical-based information that is relevant to a case or claim, in order to educate attorneys about medical facts to help them solve cases. The list of possible jobs for forensic nurses goes on and on. Forensic nurses are equipped with industry-based skills and knowledge that can be applied in diverse specialties.
To view hundreds of available forensic nursing jobs and other similar nursing careers, check out the International Association of Forensic Nurses’ career center. This job guide allows you to search for specific jobs, browse all jobs, sign-up for job alerts and post your resume to ensure that you find the best forensic nursing career possible.
