Forensic nursing educational development: an integrated review of the literature

Accessible summary The importance of this paper's findings are: Forensic nursing is a nursing specialty with subspecialties that focus on nursing practice who care for victims and offenders, living and deceased at the clinical legal interface. The gaps identified in the literature indicate where educational development did not occur concurrently with role development of forensic nursing. Role development occurred ahead of educational development for all subspecialty areas of forensic nursing except sexual assault nurse examiners, where it developed simultaneously. Forensic nursing formal education did not develop sooner as infrastructures were not in place to support it. Abstract The forensic area of practice has been a popular career choice and area of study for many of the health science disciplines. Forensic nursing is a nursing specialty with subspecialties that focus on nursing practice who care for victims and offenders, living and deceased at the clinical legal interface. This integrated review of the literature overviewed the historical development of each of the forensic nursing subspecialties and identified gaps in specialty nursing educational development. Although multiple studies for the last 30 years identified the need for forensic nursing education, recommendations did not soon translate into educational curriculum development. The literature showed that role development was not concurrent with educational development in all forensic nursing subspecialties.