Nurses Provide Emergency Care for Sexual Assault Victims

Specially trained registered nurses are now providing immediate, on-call emergency care for victims of sexual assault as part of a new pilot project.

Providing timely, sensitive care to sexual assault victims was sometimes a challenge in busy emergency room departments. Under the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) Program, a nurse is called immediately and can stay with the victim in the critical hours following an assault, providing emotional support and physical assessment. Nurses can also conduct a forensic examination and freeze evidence for up to six months, giving the individual time to make difficult decisions about reporting to police.

"This expanded role for nurses brings us closer to a dependable, caring health system that provides the right response by the right care provider, in the right place, and at the right time," said Health Minister Jamie Muir. "The program is also a wonderful example of community-based health care because it involves many partners coming together to address a need in their community."

SANE was developed by the Metro Wide Sexual Assault Response Initiative, community representatives and partners including police, hospitals and universities. Community-based women's organizations and groups with a shared interest in improving care for victims of sexual assault were also involved.

"We realized that victims of sexual assault were not always getting the care they needed and that if we worked together, we could provide a more caring, more co-ordinated response," said Judith Hockney, program director of Women's Health at the IWK Grace Health Centre and chair of the Metro Wide Sexual Assault Response Initiative. "SANE is a big step forward for women's health and for all victims of sexual assault, both female and male."

SANE is being delivered by the Avalon Sexual Assault Centre. It is the first program of its kind in Canada to be delivered through a community-based organization. The centre, working with its many partners, is responsible for administration and co- ordination of the program, including contracting nurses, and developing and delivering the specialized training programs.

"This has been a huge collaborative effort by people who don't typically get to work together," said Irene Smith, the centre's executive director. "Everyone brought issues and perspectives to the table that contributed to the uniqueness of the SANE program."

Ms. Smith said SANE not only means more compassionate care for victims of sexual assault, but the option to store forensic evidence gives the victim time to deal with the initial trauma, and may mean more people decide to report the crime to police. Under the old system, victims had to make that decision in the emergency room, immediately following the assault.

Since the first SANE program nurses began on-call duty in January, they have cared for more than 30 victims of sexual assault. There are currently nine nurses providing the service through the emergency rooms of the IWK Grace Health Centre, the QEII Health Sciences Centre and Dartmouth General. Four more nurses are in training.

The SANE program, which receives $200,000 a year in funding from the Department of Health, is a three-year pilot project in the Capital District Health Authority.