and families with the knowledge that the nurse caring for them has demonstrated advanced knowledge and experience within their practice specialty (American Association of Critical Care Nurses [AACN], 2013). Specialty certification is attractive to institutions who wish to demonstrate a desire to employ professional nurses committed to education and best practice. Certification also provides the nurse with a sense of accomplishment, as well as lends credibility to his/her practice (AACN, 2013) which is of particular importance in forensic nursing as credibility is integral to the FN’s work as a member of the multidisciplinary forensic team (Lynch & Duval, 2011). Upon successful completion of the GCFN, graduates will have the opportunity to obtain certification in in the specialty of forensic nursing. Several certifications are offered within the specialty, including: 1. Certified Forensic Nurse (CFN) through the American College of Forensic Examiners International (ACFEI) 2. Advanced Forensic Nursing- Board Certified (AFN-BC) through the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) 3. Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner- Adult/Adolescent (SANE-A) through the Forensic Nursing Certification Board (FNCB) 4. Registered Medicolegal Death Investigator (RMDI) through the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators (ABMDI) CLINICAL/FIELD EXPERIENCES AND CERTIFICATION There are two FN generalist certifications- CFN and AFN-BC. Neither credential requires the completion of clinical education hours to obtain the certification. Requirements for CFN certification are: current, unrestricted RN license; 2) minimum of three years of experience as an RN; and 3) a member of ACFEI (ACFEI, 2013). Requirements for AFNC certification are: 1) current RN license; 2) two years of full-time practice as RN; 3) RN must hold a graduate degree in nursing; 4) have a minimum of 2,000 practice hours in forensic nursing within the last three years; 5) completed 30 continuing education hours within forensic GRADUATE CERTIFCATE FORENSIC NURSING 13 NR New Graduate Certificate Forensic Nursing 2013 V3 nursing in the last three years; and 6) fulfilled select professional development requirements (ANA, 2013). There are also two subspecialty certifications for FNs- SANE- A and RMDI. SANE-A certification is obtained after completing a minimum of 40 hours of required didactic content (provided in the GCFN program). There is also a precepted clinical component required to sit for this certification. As part of coursework, the GCFN program will offer select field experiences to students which may serve as part of the SANE-A clinical requirement. Field experiences may include: court room observation of criminal proceedings, a law enforcement ride along, and a tour of the Michigan State Crime Lab. Field experiences will be selected based on relevance to FN generalist practice; thus, the program will not cover all precepted clinical requirements needed for SANE-A certification. The remainder of the SANE-A precepted clinical requirements will need to be obtained and completed independently by the student and only if they choose to subspecialize and seek certification as a SANE-A. Further, there is no “set number” of precepted clinical hours mandated by the IAFN. Satisfaction of this component is “train to competency” based on the clinical preceptor’s judgment of the FN’s skill and their ability to meet the requirements set forth by the IAFN and agency in which the FN plans to practice. The second subspecialty certification is RMDI. This certification does not require an educational clinical component to sit for the examination; however, the FN must be actively working in a medical examiner (ME) or coroner’s office and have at least 640 hours of death investigative experience. The GCFN program will educate students to work in the aforementioned settings by following the IAFN’s educational guidelines for Forensic Nurse Death Investigator (FNDI) practice and the U.S. Department of Justice’s guidelines for general death investigator practice. While the IAFN does not currently offer a certification exam specifically for FNDIs, the organization does stipulate a required didactic and precepted clinical experience for competent FNDI practice; these requirements are similar to that of the SANE-A described above. Select field experiences will once again be offered during the FNDI course and may serve as part of the FNDI precepted clinical requirement. These field experiences include: autopsy observation, forensic pathologist/scientist GRADUATE CERTIFCATE FORENSIC NURSING 14 NR New Graduate Certificate Forensic Nursing 2013 V3 observation, and organ/tissue transplant agency observation. The objectives of these field experiences are to enhance FN generalist education and practice; thus, students who would like to subspecialize as an FNDI will be required to independently obtain and complete the remainder of the required precepted clinical experiences. Students will be notified of required field experiences during the program information session, the admission interview, at orientation, and also within the related course syllabi. All efforts will be made to hold field experiences during scheduled course meeting times. Students will be notified of dates as early as possible for all other field experiences scheduled outside of class time. The need for