Abstract

A social influence began in the 1970s when the term “forensic” became increasingly popular. Since then the “forensic focus” has been a voguish career choice and area of study for many of the health science disciplines. Forensic nursing has many subspecialties that deal with the legal aspects of caring for patients who are either victims or offenders, living or deceased. A recent study explored forensic nursing knowledge as a specialty area of study and social factors influencing educational development. This paper reports only on findings of this study that addressed the unique knowledge of forensic nursing that resulted in constructed definitions of forensic nursing. Knowing specifically what knowledge of forensic nursing was different from nursing in general, and different from other forensic disciplines has specific implications for interprofessional education.