Programs

Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program (SANE)

A sexual assault is a devastating trauma to victims both physically and emotionally. Victims of sexual assault deserve prompt comprehensive care in all medical facilities. Victims should receive medical care for the evaluation and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy concerns. Victims should be offered options of care and reporting options when requesting care from medical facilities.

What is a SANE?
The Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) Program provides direct patient care to victims of sexual violence who present to emergency departments and urgent care centers. The SANEs deliver coordinated, expert forensic and medical care necessary to increase successful prosecution of sex offenders and to assure essential medical intervention to victims of violence.
 

What do SANEs do?

• Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs) are specially trained and certified professionals skilled in performing quality forensic medical-legal exams. Should a case go to trial, the SANEs are then available to testify
• SANEs are available by beeper and respond to the site ready to care for the victim of sexual assault
• SANEs will document the account of the assault, perform necessary medical exams, testing and treatment, then collect crucial, time sensitive evidence
• A forensic exam performed by a SANE can take around to 4 hours
• SANEs provide medical care to survivors without interruption, therefore maintaining the chain of evidence from the exam
• SANEs provide preventative treatment for HIV, STDs, and pregnancy

What are the benefits for the victim?

• Emergency department staff frequently regard the needs of sexual assault victims as less urgent than other patients because the majority of these victims do not sustain severe physical injuries
• Sexual assault victims often endure long waits in busy public areas (4- to 10-hour waits are not uncommon)
• Sexual assault victims often are not allowed to eat, drink, or urinate while they wait for a physician or nurse to conduct the evidentiary exam, to avoid destroying evidence
• Physicians or nurses who perform evidentiary exams often have not been trained in forensic evidence collection procedures or do not perform these procedures frequently enough to maintain proficiency
• Some physicians are reluctant to perform evidentiary exams because they know that they might be called from the hospital to testify in court and that their qualifications to conduct the exam might be questioned due to a lack of training and experience
• Emergency department staff may not understand sexual assault victimization (e.g., they may blame victims for their assaults or may not believe a "real rape" occurred) and overlook the need to treat victims with sensitivity and respect
• Emergency department staff may fail to gather and/or document all available forensic evidence, particularly in nonstranger cases

What are the benefits for the community?

With accurate evidence collections and more prosecutions, more perpetrators of sexual violence will be incarcerated rather than offending more victims, thus making for a healthier community. The message that a survivor receives when a SANE program is developed is: Sexual assault is a problem for the entire community, not just victims and local sexual assault programs.

The mental health and physical well being of sexual assault victims are important to the community. Support for professionals to receive special training to learn how to properly collect forensic evidence is important to community leaders to insure a higher conviction rate of sex offenders.

What does a SANE training program involve?

The Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner training is divided into a didactic portion consisting of approximately 42 hours in the classroom, followed by 45 hours of clinical activities which includes:

• Medical exams/SBI Rape Kit
• Law Enforcement
• Pediatricians/Child Medical Exams
• Criminal Justice Procedures
• Victim Advocacy
• Department of Social Services

For more information, please contact WCASA’s SANE Coordinator