Job description

As far as i know, there are several different kinds of forensic nurses: sexual assault nurse examiners (SANE), geriatric and pediatric abuse nurses, and nurse coroners. From the data I've managed to scrounge up (and it's not a lot, so maybe this could be all wrong), I think that forensic nurses participate heavily in the collection of evidence and the presentation of evidence in the courtroom. There is a website: www.forensicnurse.org that may be able to tell you more.

Good Luck,

calililly

Forensic nurses pronounce a victim as "dead" at a crime scene. They also don't get paid much from what I understand.

posted in wrong place, but the software won't let me delete it, so you get to read this pointless message.

Roles of a forensic nurse vary according to the country in which you reside. In the United States this can be "death investigator, nurse coroner, clinical nurse specialist, sexual assualt nurse examiner, forensic psychiatric nurse, correctional nurse, legal consultant nurse, nurse attorney, forensic nurse educator/consultant, forensic paediatric nurse and forensic gerontology nurse" (Evans.A.; & Wells, 2001, p 38.).

In the New Zealand Health System it is care provided specific to the mentally ill offender.

It focusses on risk assessment and management, knowledge and application of the law and knowledge of the application of principles relating to recovery from mental illness and violence.

In NZ we have court liason nurses, community psychiatric forensic nurses, and inpatient forensic nurses.

As you can see USA has a larger scope and focusses on the "victim" we focus on the offender.

Evans, A.M. & Wells, D. (2001). Scope of practice in forensic nursing. Journal of Psychosocial nursing and Mental Health. 39 (1).

how much money do these different professions get paid?

Anyone who is interested in forensic nursing should check out the International Association of Forensic Nurses web site at www.forensicnurse.org For job descriptions click on the career link. There is a great deal of accurate information on the specifics of this type of nursing.

From what I have read about forensic nursing is it is hard to get into and the pay is less than floor nursing.