Forensic Nursing Education: Online Programs

Abstract

The shift to online forensic nursing education is growing in professional development and continuing education required for certification. Students and instructors are attracted by the ease of use and personalization inherent to asynchronous online instruction. Online education can provide a mechanism for timely and supplemental training to address personnel shortages in certain professional roles, such as forensic nursing. Since all students will necessarily be adult learners, and already possessing professional licensure, they will bring with them a wide array of experience from the forensic arena, ranging from entrée into the field to having years in the trenches. It is imperative that all students, from novice to expert, establish a sense of comfort to safely demonstrate their current level of expertise and knowledge. Based on the virtual exponential explosion of advances in technology for educational settings, the path to learning will be ever changing. As this occurs, educational strategies from forensic nursing instructors must be pedagogically translated for the learner who must simultaneously navigate the responsibilities of home, work and school, and will necessarily need to continue to facilitate not only flexibility of learning, but simultaneously maximize immediate utilization in the real world of forensic nursing practice.