Unit.C.8.3.
Forensic Nursing Career Opportunities
Australia |
focus
points
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Insert forensic
focus points here
Canada |
focus
points
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Career Path
- Basic General
Nursing Degree
- Practicum
experiences in undergraduate/graduate degrees in forensic
correctional/psychiatric settings.
- Option courses
(degree transferable) in forensic psychiatric/correctional
nursing.
- Certificate
course or programs in Forensic Nursing.
Forensic
Employers (Forensic Psychiatric/Correctional Nursing).
United States
Federal Bureau
of Prisons
State Hospitals
(Forensic)
Canada
Correctional
Services of Canada
- Prisons and
Regional Psychiatric Centres
Provincial Forensic
Services
- Provincial
hospitals, general hospitals, community outreach services
Provincial Corrections
- Remands Centres,
Correctional Centres, Half Way Houses & Community
Outpatient Services
United Kingdom
High Security
Psychiatric Service
- Special Hospitals
(Ashworth, Rampton, Broadmore, Carstairs)
Prisons and
jails
- Community
liaisons services
- Regional
Secure Units (RSUs)
Australia
- state medium
secure forensic unit
- forensic units
in psychiatric hospitals (i.e.)James Nash House
Work Settings
- Forensic
psychiatric assessment units - may be located in general
hospitals or remand centres, jails or prisons.
- Forensic
Psychiatric Treatment or Rehabilitative Units- may be
located in Special hospital (UK), State Hospitals (US),
Provincial Hospitals or Regional Psychiatric Centres (CA),
or (AU).
Also forensic
mental health nurses work within the correctional setting
(assessment and treatment units within the remand centres,
correctional centres, state or country jails or federal
or state prisons.
International |
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points
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Insert forensic
focus points here
United Kingdom |
focus
points
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"Forensic
nursing can justifiably claim the status of a speciality,
with its distinctive client group, predominantly institutional
based care, exceptional knowledge base and a clinical focus
on mental disorder and deviance" (Burrow, 1993, p.
899).
"Forensic
nursing has now emerged as specialist professional territory
throughout the psychiatrised world" (Mason & Mercer,
1999, p. 236).
"A growing
body of literature testifies to the search for a professional
identify, yet ironically this has typically been at the
expense of professional practice" (Mason & Mercer,
1999, p. 236).
"Empirical
evidence for the role of the forensic nurse has been lacking
(Robinson & McGregor Kettles, 1998, p. 214).
"Eight
questions in this study elicited subtle differences between
the role of the mental health nurse and the forensic nurses"
(Robinson & McGregor Kettles, 1998, p. 214).
"Post graduate
educational pathways are not clear for those nurses wishing
to enter forensic care and become a 'forensic nurse'"
(Robinson & McGregor Kettles, 1998, p. 214).
"Much needs
to be done to develop the professional status of forensic
nurses" (Robinson & McGregor Kettles, 1998, p.
214).
"While
nurses are clear about the special attributes knowledge
and skills, in caring for and treating the mentally disordered
offender, the term forensic nurses appears to be an international
expression for people with diverse roles, eg correctional
nurse, sexual assault examiner, working both with mentally
disordered offenders and outside this field" (Robinson
& McGregor Kettles, 1998, p. 217).
United States |
focus
points
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"When entering
allied fields, nurses must hold fast to their unique skills
as nurses" (Standingbear, 1995, p. 64).
"Early
on, perhaps in order to survive, nurses entering the field
of death investigation simply bought into the co-optation
and abandoned their nursing ideals. In essence, they became
cops and embraced the police subculture. Even today there
are those who would challenge the assertion that death investigation
is a nursing role" (Standing Bear, 1995, p. 62).
"The recurrent
theme in community policing ideology is, "We cannot
do it alone". It is time for communities to work together
to deal with and reduce violence and perhaps theft and greed
in our environments" (Standing Bear, 1995, p. 59).
"Forensic
nursing and forensic nurses represent the potential for
significant positive contributions to community life. It
is a concept that is holistic, caring, practical, and essential.
It is a major concept and forces joining "health"
and "justice" Therefore the primary challenge
to forensic nurses as seen from the position of an outsider,
is to maintain and hold true to those most basic tenets
of nursing and secondarily, go out and join in the community
effort to deal with crime" (Standing Bear, 1995, p.
60).
"A more
holistic approach toward science is the vision of the future.
The field of criminal justice and criminal investigation
is no exception. Swanson, Chamelin and Territo (1992), when
addressing the future of criminal investigation, cited the
need for interdisciplinary cooperation and coordination
as one of the major trends in and necessities of the future,
and specifically cited forensic nursing in death investigation
as an example" (Standing Bear, 1995, p. 63).
"It is
something to be able to paint a picture, or to carve a statue,
and so to make a few objects beautiful. But it is far more
glorious to carve and paint the atmosphere in which we work,
to effect the quality of the day. This is the highest of
the arts" (by Henry David Thoreau, cited in Standing
Bear, 1995, p. 60).
"When entering
allied fields, nurses must hold fast to their unique skills
as nurses" (Standingbear, 1995, p. 64).
"Early
on, perhaps in order to survive, nurses entering the field
of death investigation simply bought into the co-optation
and abandoned their nursing ideals. In essence, they became
cops and embraced the police subculture. Even today there
are those who would challenge the assertion that death investigation
is a nursing role" (Standing Bear, 1995, p. 62).
"Forensics
is a general term meaning legal proceedings. Forensic science
is a systematic body of knowledge dealing with the intersection
of medicine and law" (Winfrey, 1999, p. 2).
"Forensic
nursing has emerged as a nursing specialty that focuses
on the forensic aspects of health care combined with the
biopsychosocial education of the registered nurse in the
scientific investigation of and treatment of trauma, and
or death victims, an perpetrators of violence, criminal
activity, and traumatic accidents" (IAFN, 1997, p.
2; cited in Winfrey, 1999, p. 2).
"Today's
critical care nurses while still primarily operating within
the protected walls of a hospital, find themselves interacting
increasingly with the unfiltered malevolence of society.
This forced intersection of society and nursing compels
nurses to consider their civic duties. In dealing with legal
and societal realities, knowledge of forensic can help,
allay the sense of uncertainty experienced when nurses must
be framed within the civic text. Knowledge of forensics
can also serve to enhance social consciousness. Justice
becomes not just a moral imperative but a legal on as well"
(Winfrey, 1999, p. 2).
"Consider
the patient care situations, that daily confront critical
care nurses. Incidents of domestic terrorism result in critical
care nurses being just as likely to care for victims of
a bombing as to care for perpetrators. In urban settings
the victim may be an innocent bystander hit during a gang
shoot out or a gang member. Non of these individuals enters
the hospital diagnosis as either victim or offender. It
is only the legal system after due process, affixes such
labels" (Winfrey, 1999, p. 2).
"Forensics
is an emerging specialty area of nursing. The study and
practice of forensics have a long and accepted history in
medicine and psychiatry. Nurses always have cared for patients
who were victims of violence in emergency rooms, critical
care settings and the community. Only recently has nursing
recognized forensic science as a valid area of study. Graduate
courses and degrees are offered in forensics and forensic
knowledge has been incorporated into undergraduate nursing
education (Winfrey, 1996). Accordingly forensic science
can be considered another area of empirical study of nursing"
(Winfrey, 1999, p. 3).
"The forensically
educated critically care nurse knows how to collect evidence
and initiate the justice system. These actions occur because
the critical care nurse has been educated about pattern
recognition. Conceptually these nurses view the criminal
justice system as part of the interdisciplinary patient
care team" (Winfrey, 1999, p. 2).
Focus Points
Reference
Burrow, S. (1993).
An outline of the forensic nursing role. British Journal
of Nursing,18 (2), 899- 904.
Standing Bear,
Z.G. (1995). Forensic nursing and death investigation: With
the vision be co- opted? Journal of Psychosocial Nursing
and Mental Health Services, 33 (9), 59-64.
Winfrey, M.
E. & Smith, A. R. (1999). The suspiciousness factor:
Critical care nursing and forensics. Critical Care Nursing
Quarterly, 22 (1), 1-7.
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C - Forensic Nursing > Section C.8.0. Forensic Future > Unit.C.8.3.
Forensic Nursing Career Opportunities
