University of Tennessee
10-week National Forensic Academy
The University of Tennessee hosts a 10-week training program for law enforcement agencies, teaching officers how to college, preserve and identify specimens during crime scene investigation. This is a long course: we're talking 400 hours of training per session, broken down into 170 hours of in-class study and 230 hours of field work. There is a comprehensive final exam at the end, as well as a practical exam.
The forensics school offers modules in pretty much every branch of forensic science: death investigation, WMD, trace evidence, fingerprinting, crime scene photography, tire and footwear impressions, DNA, courtroom testimony, CSI management, ballistics, bombs & booby-traps, arson and auto theft investigation. If you qualify, the program will even grant you 15 hours of undergraduate credit or 9 hours of graduate credit that you can apply toward a masters. If you're interested in the program, give them a call at 865-946-3023.
Vanderbilt University
Forensic Nursing
Vanderbilt offers nursing students the chance to learn forensic nursing, with courses in the fundamentals, concepts, and practical hands-on work. On top of the classroom training, there are 210 hours required of clinical practice in forensic nursing. In the end, you can take what you learned and apply it to psychiatric mental health nursing, domestic violence, SANE (sexual assault nurse examiner), prison & correctional nursing, legal nurse consult, death investigation, child & elder abuse and war & mass casualty investigations.