The University of Florida Forensic Science for Nurses Pre-Certification program is designed for registered nurses who are seeking to become a Forensic Nurse Certified Consultant (FNCC). According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, registered nurses (RNs) constitute the largest healthcare occupation, with about 60% of RNs working in hospitals. Nurses that are able to specialize will discover exciting new job opportunities outside of the hospital. Forensic nurses work as self-employed consultants and as employees in facilities.
Upon completion of the program, students are awarded a certificate of completion from the University of Florida's Professional Development. In addition, they are prepared to successfully pass the certification exam offered by the International Commission on Health Care Certification (ICHCC). For specific information on the CFNC credential, please visit the ICHCC website.
In order to sit for the certification examination, participants are required to complete the online program. The online program is comprised of four online modules. It has an open enrollment period so participants may enroll at any time and are allowed up to one year to complete the program. Online courses utilize audio and video lectures, electronic slideshows, online guest lectures, website field trips, exercises, and other techniques designed to support mastery of the material.
About
The University of Florida's program Forensic Science for Nurses is built upon the eight forensic nursing practice areas as designated by the International Association of Forensic Nurses (IAFN) and is a unique blend of forensic nursing science (the textbook), the real world (contributing faculty), and the university's globally renowned forensic science program.
Forensic nursing science is an investigative approach to explain the events and associated medical-legal issues that result in the aftermath of these events when injury is sustained by trauma, abuse, neglect, violence, traumatic accidents, and traumatic events of nature. A clinical forensic nurse provides care to both the victim and the perpetrator and defends the patients' legal rights through the collection and documentation of forensic evidence. The goal of a forensic nurse is to competently and objectively collect, document, photograph, contain, and preserve evidence. A forensic nurse seeks the truth through an investigative approach and testifies to their findings without bias.
The role of the forensic nurse specialist within the health care environment is emphasized throughout the program. Self-employment opportunities are also discussed in each of the eight practice areas, such as becoming a consultant or an independent contractor. Nurses have an increasing legal responsibility to ensure that reliable methods of evidence collection are used and that illegal acts are reported to law enforcement. This program is intended to introduce nurses to the forensic aspects of health care, criminal justice, law enforcement, and public service. The program contains four courses and each course contains a minimum of three units.
Sample Video Lectures
Registration
If you are in the Gainesville area, you can come by our office at 2124 NE Waldo Rd., Suite 1101 to register for our distance learning courses and purchase your books in person.
Instructors
Instructor
Patricia Bemis, RN CEN LHCRM
Patricia Bemis is a registered nurse certified in emergency nursing. She is the president of the National Nurses in Business Association, and the recipient of the 100 Great Nurses Award presented by the Florida Nurses Association. She is an experienced national speaker and a leader in the field of nurse entrepreneurship.
An accomplished writer of clinical and nurse entrepreneurial issues, Bemis has written several books, including Emergency Nursing Bible, 4th edition (a peer-reviewed reference book); Self-Employed RN: Choices, Business Aspects, and Marketing Strategies; and Nurse Entrepreneurs: Tales of Nurses in Business.
In addition, she has developed several home-study DVD courses for RN self-employment, emergency nursing, and the business side of legal nurse consulting. Bemis travels throughout the country teaching on-site classes for hospitals that prepare nurses for the emergency nursing certification exam. Forensic nursing science is included in all her educational products. For example, she teaches emergency nurses how to implement the clinical aspects of forensic nursing science in the emergency department.
She presently works in the arena of legal nurse consulting as an expert witness in healthcare employment. Her experience includes working with the medical examiner during autopsy, legal defense counsels on personal injury and workers' compensation claims, and in several other areas of forensic nursing.
On-Site Training Presenters
Lynda Tiefel, BSN, RN, CEN, SANE-A, EMT-P
Lynda Tiefel has collected evidence from abuse survivors for 20 years while working in Emergency Centers. She has been performing independent forensic exams since 2002, and in 2005 became internationally certified as a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner-Adult/Adolescent (SANE-A). Tiefel has testified as an expert in numerous legal cases.
Tiefel founded the Northwest Florida chapter of the International Association of Forensic Nurses, and serves on IAFN's Certification Board for Forensic Nurses and the Ethics Committee. She currently is under contract with the Refuge House in Tallahassee, Florida, and maintains a legal nurse consulting business.
Rose Clifford RN, LNCC
Rose Clifford is the executive director of Medical Analysis Resources, Inc. She utilizes her 24 years of experience in the legal nursing consultant sector to analyze complicated medical records for fact, merit, and detection of fraud in medical malpractice, personal injury, product liability, and criminal cases. She has been involved in numerous Medicare fraud investigations and defenses. Additionally, Clifford is an experienced speaker and author.
Ms. Clifford has held board positions in the Florida and Kentucky Chapters of the American Association of Legal Nurse consultants. She has experience working as an in-house nurse consultant in an independent LNC practice in the rural Bluegrass of Kentucky, and with the law firm of Deutsch & Blumberg in Miami, Florida.
Shelley Eskridge, BSN, RN, CEN
Shelley Eskridge is a nurse with 17 years of experience who works with pediatrics and adults in the emergency department. As a nurse case coordinator, she worked extensively with the Broward Child Protection Team to develop their program. She has completed multiple trainings in the area of forensics, including Huntsville's Symposium on Child Sexual Abuse, the Institute for Pediatric Medical Education's Pediatric Forensic Issues, Florida Attorney General's Master Class Training, and a Forensic Nursing Odyssey. Eskridge is currently a member of the Southwest Florida Regional Human Trafficking Coalition.
Jennifer Mench
Jennifer Mench is a parent educator and case manager with extensive experience working with sexual assault survivors and child abuse victims. She is a National Credentialed Crisis Responder with the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA), and an active member of the Florida Crisis Response Team. While working with NOVA, she responded as a team member for hurricanes Charley and Frances, and worked with many victims of crimes and national disasters
Contributing Authors
- Katherine Scholl, RN SANE CMI-3 CHS-3 DABFN FACFE
- Lynda Tiefel, RN SANE-A
- Patricia Iyer, MSN RN LNCC
- Jeanne Heltzel, ARNP CEN CDE
- Virginia Duffy, Ph.D. RN APRN-PMH
- Patricia Ann Bemis, RN CEN
- Kim Bunker, RN BSN
- Selana Wright-Brown, APN MNSc RN Deputy Coroner 908
- Terry Repasky, RN MSN CEN EMTP
- Jane Grametbaur, RN CCHP-A
- Yvonne Jeffra, RN BSN CCHP RDH
- Clarann Hull, RN MSCC CCM CLNC
- Marguerite Barbacci, RN LNCC
- Madeline Good, RN MSN LNCC
- Olga Crain-Carmichael, RN-C MA BSN CLNC CGP CDVA CAMF CEAP
- Victoria Powell, RN CCM LNCC CNLCP MSCC CEAS
- Beth Boynton, RN MS
Textbooks
Required Textbooks
Suggested Books
Suggested books for supplementary reading:
- Behavioral First Aid: Managing Emotions During Emergencies by Virginia J. Duffy, Ph.D. RN APRN-PMH. ISBN: 1-878398-54-7.
- Forensic Notes by Connie Darnell, BSN, RN and Christine Michel, Ph.D., RN. ISBN-13: 978-0-8036-2652-2.
- Emergency Nursing Bible, 4th edition, by Patricia Ann Bemis, RN CEN. ISBN: 0-967811-29-5.
Learning Modules
Multiple-choice quizzes are provided at the end of each module. Upon passing all four quizzes, a nursing continuing education certificate is offered for 80 contact hours. The University of Florida, Division of Continuing Education will provide a certificate of completion suitable for framing when the student completes the program.
Multiple-choice quizzes are provided at the end of each module. Upon passing all four quizzes, a nursing continuing education certificate is offered for 80 contact hours. The University of Florida, Division of Continuing Education will provide a certificate of completion suitable for framing when the student completes the program.
Module 1: Forensic Nursing Science, Emergency and Trauma, and Disasters
This module is divided into three units. The units introduce forensic nursing's eight practice areas and the career opportunities available. The emergency and trauma practice area is addressed in detail.
- Unit 1: Forensic Nursing Science introduces the eight forensic nursing practice areas and the career opportunities available in these areas of practice. Consulting and independent practice are discussed.
- Unit 2: Emergency and Trauma including the specifics about near-fatal trauma, suicide attempts, traumatic injuries, vehicle and pedestrian accidents, and work-related injuries. It also looks into when to report to law enforcement and how to manage the scene until law enforcement arrives.
- Unit 3: Disasters including the specifics about man-made and natural disasters including how to prepare to offer support during a disaster.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this module participants will be able to:
- create a timeline of events related to the development of forensic nursing
- describe what methods are used for nursing certification
- recognize what constitutes evidence in the emergency department and describe the procedures and techniques used to collect and preserve it
- list the persons and/or agencies responsible for assessing the damage and determining the needs during the initial stages of a potential disaster
- explore the career paths available to forensic nurses.
Module 2: Interpersonal Violence, Abuse and Neglect, and Mechanisms of Injury
This module is divided into three units. The units address the practice area of interpersonal violence and the career opportunities available:
- Interpersonal Violence presents specifics about violence against women and addresses sexual assault and battery, female genital mutilation, biological evidence, binocular microscopy, sequelae of sexual violence, and postmortem exams for sexual assault.
- Abuse and Neglect presents specifics about child and elder abuse and neglect, human trafficking, male victims of spousal abuse, and occult and religious abuse.
- Mechanisms of Injury presents specifics about the mechanisms of injury associated with interpersonal violence. The following topics are addressed in detail: bite mark injuries (animal and human), blunt and sharp injuries, and gunshot injuries.
- identify potential victims of interpersonal violence
- recognize mechanisms of injury
- implement interventions that will protect the victim
- collect evidence to lead law enforcement to the perpetrator.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this module participants will be able to:
Module 3: Evidence Collection, Forensic Photography, and Death Investigation
This module is divided into three units. The units address the practice area of death investigation and the career opportunities available.
- Unit 1: Evidence Collection presents specifics about evidence collection and preservation, DNA and CODIS projects, forensic toxicology, and crime scene processing.
- Unit 2: Forensic Photography presents specifics about cameras, lighting, colpophotography, digital photography, photographs as legal documents, and consents.
- Unit 3: Death Investigation presents specifics about the forensic nurse examiner's role as a death investigator, the forensic investigation of death, homicide profiling, nurse-related homicides, autoerotic fatalities, taphonomy and necrosearch, and sudden death during acute psychotic episodes. The roles of the position of coroner, deputy coroner, and medical examiner are explained.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this module participants will be able to:
- advocate for the victim after death
- play a substantial role in the death investigation
- determining cause of death
- collecting evidence to assist law enforcement in apprehending the perpetrator.
Module 4: Forensic Mental Health, Patient Care Facility Issues, Public Health and Safety, Correctional Nursing, and Legal Nurse Consulting
This module is divided into five units. The units address the practice areas of forensic mental health, patient care facility issues, public health and safety, correctional nursing, and legal nurse consulting and the career opportunities available.
- Unit 1: Forensic Mental Health presents the specifics about psychiatric forensic nursing, forensic mental health nursing, critical incident stress management, and suicide risk assessment while caring for the perpetrator pre- and post-trial.
- Unit 2: Patient Care Facility Issues presents the specifics of violence in the healthcare workplace.
- Unit 3: Public Health and Safety presents the specifics about organ donation, occupational health and safety issues, research with vulnerable participants, stalking crimes, child and adolescent sex rings, and pornography.
- Unit 4: Correctional Nursing presents the specifics of caring for the offenders post trial while protecting their rights.
- Unit 5: Legal Nurse Consulting presents the specifics of the role of the legal nurse consultant, malpractice and negligence, legal standards and practices, and international law.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this module participants will be able to:
- discuss the role of the forensic nurse in mental health, public health, and correctional nursing
- discuss the role of the forensic nurse in legal nurse consulting
- recognize potential criminal activity.
Policies
Withdrawal Policy
A tuition refund will be granted after written request for withdrawal from a course within 30 days of enrollment. This request must be in writing, and may be sent by fax, email, or U.S. mail. All requests will receive written responses. Refunds will be the amount of tuition, less a $100.00 processing charge. Allow four to six weeks for refund checks. No refunds are granted after 30 days.
Resources