So, what makes studying about sexual assault victims important for nurses? Well, in the United States, someone is being sexually assaulted every two minutes, and now more than ever, people are feeling comfortable enough to come out about their own experiences of harassment and assault, especially in the film and media industry. It’s important for these victims to have immediate and compassionate care, and it is also important to raise awareness for sexual assault so it could be prevented.

Sexual assault is quite a broad term that can include the following incidences:

• Rape
• Unnecessary genital touching
• Forced viewing of pornography
• Forced involvement in pornography

To put it simply, sexual assault is a complex issue that involves medical, legal, as well as psychological problems. It’s to be noted that only about forty percent of sexual assaults are reported. Most often,  rape survivors, who seek post-assault healthcare and forensic evidence collection, do not receive fundamental services. They are made to wait long hours before having the evidence collected by personnel. Previously, there was a problem where only one physician was required from the beginning to end of the examination just so that the sequence of collecting forensic evidence is not broken. In general, only one physician was trained to perform the pelvic examination alongside an interview. As such, needing the same physician during the needed time was almost impossible. This makes it important for nurses to be involved in the sexual assault victim care, as well as be compassionate and understanding for these victims.

Birth of a Nurse-Driven Program:

It would be impossible to take care of sexual assault victims if the same physician has to perform the examination from beginning to end. This created the need for a consistent, nurse-driven program for providing care for sexual assault victims. As such, this program could reduce patient wait times when at the same time giving them the optimal health care. In addition, such programs would also provide an expert collection of evidence so as to enhance prosecution rates. These programs involved all the following people from the nurse groups:

• Nurses
• Nurse practitioners
• Nursing managers

As such, this is a week-long training program to develop “Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE).” It’s to be noted that this is an independent contractor job, which enables the nurses to work in a healthcare organization while working as a sexual assault examiner on the other side.

The objectives of this program are to offer immediate, comprehensive, as well as compassionate care to the sexual assault victims.

What does a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner do?

In general, this special category of nurses is dedicated to protecting the dignity and decreasing the psychological trauma that could be experienced by the assault victim. As such, the SANE nurse will get the notification from the nursing staff when the sexually assaulted patient is in the emergency department. The SANE nurse, who is supported by the staff, will be immediately allotted to the patient. The role of the sexual assault nurse examiner would start with the collection of a preliminary history from the patient. and he or she will also conduct an in-depth interview and perform a physical examination. This would include a pelvic examination as well. This way, the nurse examiner will aim to collect appropriate evidence.

Followed by this, the nurse examiner will maintain a verified sequence of evidence and work along with law enforcement officials, and his or her role will also include testifying in the courtroom. Besides this, the role SANE nurses will also include educating the victims regarding the sexually-transmitted diseases and pregnancy risks. They should also make appropriate referrals for follow-up care.

Caring for a Sexual Assault Victim – Nurse’s Work Flow:

There are a few important things to be noted by a sexual assault nurse examiner when it comes to caring for an assault victim. As such, it would be best if the examination is done within 5 hours of the incident. After all, the nurses are trying to get the victim’s history and assess the victim’s body and collect evidence from them. The collected evidence will go to the crime laboratory. After this time, because of showering and wiping, the evidence could be lost.

Nurses should also remember that almost all the centers would use the same sexual assault kit and when the nurse examiner gets a call from the staff, he or she needs to appear to the site in an hour or so. What’s more challenging for the nurses in these cases will be to make sure everything is carried to the site properly. If the victim has any other type of trauma in the body, the nurses should make sure that there is nothing going on that could be life-threatening to the patient.

As such, these sexual assault nurse examiners are trained to evaluate a patient differently than the regular nurses. Knowing that the victim has gone through various stages of trauma, and that, sometimes, the victim will not remember what really happened, these nurses would know how to assess the patient head-to-toe along with the history and questioning.