UWG
News Item
Contact: University Communications & Marketing
Phone (678) 839-6464, FAX (678) 839-6645
ucm@westga.edu
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Series II
April 26, 2005
CARROLLTON, GA - Although April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the Health Services department at the University of West Georgia works year-round to prevent sexual assaults and to provide the utmost standard of care to victims.
Three
nurse practitioners and one physician have been trained to become Sexual
Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE). Although Health Services closes at 6 p.m.,
students can call Public Safety 24 hours a day, and this team of trained
professionals will be called in to conduct an exam and provide advocacy.
The facility provides privacy as well as state of the art equipment and
services. This includes a colposcope, used in the medical examination
which has the capacity to take still pictures as well as video, documenting
and preserving valuable evidence of physical trauma.
The SANE program originated out of a need to collect evidence that was not contaminated. The 72 hours following an assault is a crucial period. The first goal of the SANE staff is to ensure the victim’s safety and to take care of medical needs. The second goal is the collection of evidence. The completed evidence kit is kept on file so the victim can wait to decide whether to press charges.
“This is the first step for the victim in regaining control. It gives the victim total control over what to do next,” said Dr. Leslie Cottrell, director of Health Services and trained SANE. Sexual assault is the most violent crime in which a person survives, so it is critical that the victim not be re-victimized by the process that follows.
In order for a physician or nurse to complete SANE training, they must undergo an intensive 40-hour training session in the classroom and complete required hours of field experience, including supervised rape exams. At a minimum, trainees must have their RN license with two years of experience. During the course, the trainees receive instruction in the execution of a complete rape exam and the collection of forensic evidence, profiling of perpetrators, the emotional responses of victim, the potential for re-victimization, and rape trauma syndrome. They also receive instruction in providing testimony as expert witnesses.
The SANE program is a national standard, one which Greg Heath, MSN, FNP-C, hopes will become a national protocol in handling sexual assaults. “Fewer than six in 100 rape charges are false and 85 percent of victims in the general population are assaulted by someone they know, so our job is to provide the highest level of care possible,” Heath said. As part of the UWG Health Services team, he provides services for both male and female victims.
Debra Dugan, RN, the health educator at UWG who is responsible for providing prevention education, stresses the importance of having providers trained as SANEs. “I’ve worked in emergency rooms for over 30 years in various states, and they don’t cover this information in nursing schools,” said Dugan. Dugan created the “Peer Educators” and the “1 in 4” Men’s Group because students will trust peers more readily. The educators identify high risk behaviors, teach students the tactics used by perpetrators and outline support options available for victims.
“The training made me more aware of subtle symptoms of sexual assault. It’s a real eye-opener to see the science and technology that goes into the examination,” said Martha Gibbs, RN, MSN, CFNP, who compared the exam to the model used in the television show, CSI.
Denise Parham, RNC, women’s health nurse practitioner, said, “Prior to the training, my major concern was the need for confirmation that I was collecting the evidence from the victim correctly. Although I had practiced as a woman’s health nurse practitioner for 12 years prior to the completion of the SANE training, my confidence in my skills and techniques used in the collection of the evidence greatly improved as a result of this training. This has enabled me to consistently provide the professionalism, the predictability and assurance a victim needs during such a sensitive examination.”
Jill Hendricks serves as the University’s Patient Advocate. She coordinates all campus services for victims and links them to needed community resources such as Rape Crisis. When an assault occurs, Hendricks is immediately called in to be with the victim throughout the medical exam and the interviews. If the victim chooses to prosecute, she can accompany the victim throughout the legal proceedings as well.
Having her available to be the point person for the victim enables the SANE and the Public Safety investigators to focus on their primary responsibilities. Hendricks also serves as the chairperson for the University’s Sexual Assault Response Team (SART).
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