Help!!!!!! I am a Nursing Student!!!

ChristyLS- I am also a student nurse who recently heard about forensic nursing and got really excited. It sounds great. I am planning on researching the topic and will pass on any info I find...Follow your dream!

Forensic nursing is very exciting. Unfortunately, the jobs are few and far between. The pay for death investigators is pretty low, too. The best advice I can give students is to get into the ED and get your experience, lots of it. Employers are looking for someone who is familliar with injuries and patterns, someone who is no stranger to abuses. In KS, you can attend the U of St. Louis Medicolegal Death Investigators Training Course. It is a week long. Once you get into the ED then maybe you can create your own position as a forensic specialist on call to your hospital with additional training. Then see if you can get an in with your coroner or ME, doing anything! And take it from there. Death Investigators positions are few and very saught after. I was once told that an investigator was retiring in 2 yrs and they already had 300 resumes! What were they looking for? Hands on experience. Good Luck to you.

And join the International Assn of Forensic Nurses... go to their website for info. They will send you lots of great stuff in the mail regarding training in all aspects of forensic nursing.

[This message has been edited by MD_Rn (edited March 01, 2001).]

Why don't you consider a college degree in a different field. A major in criminal justice with a concentration in criminalistics or forensics.

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Nursing assistant

The School of Nursing at Duquesne University announces the Master of Science in Nursing with a Forensic Nursing specialization. Students will be accepted into the program beginning in the Summer term of 2002. This program prepares graduates to practice in multiple areas of Forensics - sexual assault nurse, nurse coroner, nurse investigator, forensic psychiatric nurse, forensic correctional/institutional nurse, clinical nurse specialist, legal nurse consultant or expert witness, among others. The program originated out of a collaborative effort with the Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and the Law based in the Law School at Duquesne University.

http://www.nursing.duq.edu/forensic/

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs Beth-El College of Nursing and Health Sciences has a Forensic Clinical Nurse Specialist Master's Degree option. The web site is

http://web.uccs.edu/bethel/cns.htm

click on forensics. Don't let that 5 credit hour practicum fool you, each credit hour of practicum requires 96-120 hours of actual clinical time.

Hope this helps,

Linda

Mount Royal out of Alberta is supposed to have a forensics program. http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca

Johns Hopkins in Baltimore also began a forensics nursing Master's program this fall. I don't have their website handy, but you can just search JH's medical/nursing school site.