forensic nursing

Forensic nursing is a new specialty in the field of nursing. It covers the duties of helping the survivors of the criminal activities, collecting every possible forensic evidences and making available health care facilities to the prisoners. There is not one type of a forensic nurse and forensic nurse has also not deal with dead bodies at all the time. This depends on the career or the sub-specialty you have chosen. A forensic nurse is free to choose the specialization area according to her own interest. There are many of the sub-specialties in the field of forensic nursing like Forensic Clinic Specialist, Forensic Lab Expert, Death Investigator or Nurse Coroner, Legal Consultant, Sexual Assault Examiner, Forensic Gerontology Expert, Forensic Psychiatric and Forensic Correctional Nurse. These were just a few options there are a lot more.

A forensic nurse has to assist the victims of sexual assault by providing for their physical as well as psychological requirements.

A forensic nurse in the form of an investigator delivers her duties at the crime scene. The forensic nurse has to cooperate with the detectives on duty, examine the dead body, take blood samples, take necessary photographs of the body as well as the crime scene itself keep superior records and arrange for the body to be taken to the morgue. There are some additional responsibilities too like assisting the pathologist for the collection of evidence.

A death investigator is also one of the specialties in forensic nursing. A nurse coroner is the first one to arrive at the crime scene. The nurse also has to provide for the rough estimate of the death according to her training in forensic sciences. There is a possibility that the nurse can also find out if the deceased person had some medical problems because of which he had to die.

A Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner is the one who has to deal with the victims of sexual assault. The crime victims have to answer to various people like news reporters, detective officials and such. This would certainly be a horrible experience for them. These nurses have to look after the medical and the emotional requirements of the injured party. Also, they have to gather certain evidences which may be presentable at the court. A Sexual Assault Examiner Nurse has to be a witness at the court of law if required.

Legal consultant nurses are generally hired by the law representatives or insurance companies in the form of witnesses at the court. When the issues extend beyond the legal ones, then it is the Legal Consultant Nurse who has to explain and justify the issues to the public prosecutor and the jury.
.The mentally challenged individuals gain the services of the Forensic Psychiatric Nurse. The nurses have to assess, treat and manage the mentally disabled at the institution.
Forensic nursing also helps the elderly people who suffer from abuse, neglect and exploitation in the form of a Forensic Gerontology Nurse.

If you are the one who enjoys an energized workplace and drama taking place everyday in the emergency room then forensic nursing is for you.

The moment forensic nursing comes on to someone’s lips, people start speaking about the dead bodies, post mortems and all that stuff. It is a misconception that the forensic nurses have to work only with the dead bodies and conduct post mortems. But this is not true at all. Forensic nurses have to act as sexual assault nurse examiner, one conducting researches, a forensic nurse investigator, forensic nurse clinic specialists, legal nurse consultants or a death investigator.

Keeping in mind the multiple head banging roles a forensic nurse has to play the salary amount is also a matter of concern. The forensic nurses tend to get paid according to their role. Generally, with looking forward to the various roles which a forensic nurse has to play it is very easy to determine the amount of time spent in these activities. Like, if a forensic nurse is a sexual assault examiner then she will have to remain with the victim as often as he or she demands it. If the forensic nurse is acting as a researcher then this role requires a lot of time and effort. A death investigator forensic nurse is ought to spend hours or even days together according to the seriousness of the case in question. If a forensic nurse is expected to carry forward such gruesome activities then her salary should be according to her designation.

The salary can vary from country to country as well as the level of experience the forensic nurse holds. It is often seen that he forensic nurses have to work out of the hospital too. In this case, the call rate is to determine their salary. The hospitals also vary in the terms of salary for forensic nurses. In some hospitals, if the forensic nurse is to be called on for any emergency then the salary is on the basis of per hour, say $1 to $4 per hour. But this is not the case for a SANE. If a SANE is called for an emergency then she will receive 1 to 1 ½ times of their fundamental pay rate. Also to bring into your notice that this is not always the customary, it differs here again. Some cases pay according to per hour basis and some according to per case basis. In case of the per case method, he forensic nurses get anywhere around $150 to $400 according to the conformity of that particular area.

Basically, a forensic nurse’s salary starts from $26 for an hour but relative to the experience, it may also reach to $100. Obviously, the mentioned rates are typically higher than the normally offered wages to forensic nurses. Why? The answer is simple. The wage rates are higher for forensic nurses because of the advanced training and the whole lot of education involved in order to become a forensic nurse of value. And also because of the recompense they have to pay for being available on-call. Conducting the role of a forensic nurse involves a hell lot of time and effort so thereby they earn this much amount of salary.