With the continuing rise in crime rates, forensic nursing is becoming a popular part of the American judicial system and one of the booming career options. This new form of nursing is one of the newest forms of forensic sciences recognized by the American Nurses Association. The most interesting facet of this new nursing field is it combines the health care profession with the judicial system. Adding to this, forensic nurses may provide care to victims of violent crime, perform crime scene investigations or may even work as detectives in a clinical setting to assist police catch and condemn perpetrators.
Nursing education provides the basic building blocks of medical, scientific, and nursing knowledge, but competence in the nursing profession requires an ongoing process of continuing education. Continuing education for nurses is necessary for the nurse to remain up to date with the latest practice issues and it is necessary for patients safety as well. Some states have made continuing education for nurses mandatory and require a certain number of course credit hours be attained before license renewal, or require certain mandatory course subjects, while other states leave it to the nursing professional themselves to accept a personal responsibility for their own continued learning. Regardless of whether nursing continuing education courses are mandatory in ones state or not, all nurses who describe themselves as professionals need to be willing and ready to implement change in their own practice by realizing that competence in any profession requires periodic updating.
Nursing education begins at the level of nurse's aide, which requires less than 150 hours of course and hands-on work. An LPN, or Licensed Practical Nurse, can be earned in a year. A registered nurse requires a 2 to 4 year degree. A nurse practitioner needs even more higher education. A CRNA needs 2 to 3 years past the RN level. You can begin working in the nursing field as an aide in only a few weeks time; the higher training and better salary will come to you down the road. Please beware that nursing qualifications vary tremendously across the world.
1. Professional Journals: Most professional nursing journals offer an article for continuing education credit. Some offer a partial credit hour or one credit hour to readers who fill out a post test after reading the article and mail it in. While some journals offer the credit for free, others charge $10 or more and in addition to the inconvenience of needing to tear out a post test form and mail it in the nurse has no official record of having taken and passed the course. Obtaining continuing education hours through professional journals is costly and inefficient in that the cost of the journal itself must be taken into consideration along with the cost of the course if there is one, and the time and expense of mailing in addition to the lack of official record of completion and lack of central maintenance of all credits accumulated by the nurse. Additionally, nurses who rely on professional journals for their CEU hours are typically only exposed to courses related to their own specialty rather than a broader range of topics that they actually need to be exposed to in todays ever evolving health care climate. New Nursing Schools.
Besides this, the employers of forensic nursing specialists also differ. They include acute healthcare facilities, correctional institutions, insurance companies and psychiatric facilities. Definitely this new form of nursing can be considered as one of multitalented professions available in current scenario. Today there are many nursing schools in the United States that train students to perform their responsibilities as a forensic nurse effectively. These schools prepare students to confront extreme human behavior as the profession demands, maintain their cool under pressure and comfort victims while gathering and handling proofs. In terms of salary, the starting wage for a forensic nurse can start from $26 per hour with the probable to earn as much as $100 per hour, depending on the state and specialty. In addition to this, at times the salaries also vary depending on the forensic nurse's educational level, the job's location and the duties performed. In addition to this, many private hospitals in the United States are offering a higher salary for forensic nurses. Those nurses who work independently as a private consultant for law enforcement agencies or insurance companies can also receive better incomes. As a new nursing field, no doubt forensic nursing is a promising nursing career option that can provide very strict guidelines yet rewarding service. In next few years, the job opportunities are going to increase as not all hospitals have forensic nurses. Forensic nurses that join a hospital are usually on-call or work part-time since full-time positions is limited. Ultimately, the demand for these specialist nurses will surely rise. Today forensic nurse don't just provides primary care to injured victims of crime but indeed has become more valuable part in the legal system. Certainly, this is a great and right time to step into this evolving profession and become a part of the forensic nursing community.
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