By Alexis Garrobo, The Beaufort Gazette, S.C.
Jun. 16–If you want to shatter the illusion of safety, visit a hospital emergency room.
It’s there that medical professionals come across the worst cases.
But two emergency room nurses at Beaufort Memorial Hospital have been trained to work with sexual assault victims and make their ordeals as bearable as possible.
“I think that (treating sexual assault victims) has really enlightened me because we think we live in a community where everybody is safe,” said Beaufort Memorial nurse Ashley Goldman. “When you see these patients, you realize it happens.”
Five nurses at various hospitals throughout the Lowcountry are trained as Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners and are prepared to treat sexual assault victims that come through emergency room doors in less time and with more familiarity in sexual assault cases.
SANE is a national program that familiarizes nurses with rape kits, legal processes and the needs of sexual assault victims. Nurses complete a 40-hour workshop that includes a police ride-along, participation in a Hope Haven of the Lowcountry team meeting, clinicals and shadowing a sexual assault response team. Nurses also undergo a three-year training period before taking a national qualifying exam.
SANE, which links patients to Hope Haven for long-term treatment, began in the 1990s and started about a year ago at Beaufort Memorial, said Shauw Chin Capps, director of Hope Haven, a nonprofit children’s advocacy and rape crisis center.
Last year there were 375 sexual assault victims in Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton, Jasper and Allendale counties, according to Hope Haven’s records. Of those, 249 occurred in Beaufort County.
“(The patients) feel victimized by the system because they aren’t treated immediately,” said Capps “With the SANE nurses they are … more attuned to the needs, preserve the forensics and know time is of the essence.”
For patients seen by a SANE nurse, the wait times are shorter, there is less of an emotional strain and forensic evidence is more likely to be intact, said Goldman.
In hospitals with SANE nurses, patients generally wait an hour compared with much longer waits at hospitals where sexual assault patients are not considered urgent cases, said Capps.
The SANE nurses also make a huge difference in the victim’s healing journey, she said. When a victim comes into the emergency room, a SANE nurse stays with the patient though treatment.
The extra training reinforces a nurse’s duty for the patient and also for forensic evidence should charges be filed. When collected by a SANE nurse, 92 percent of the kits compared with 15 percent of those collected by non-SANE nurses contained an extra vial of blood for alcohol or drug analysis, according to a study by the National Electronic Network on Violence Against Women. The same article found the blood stain card was property prepared in 100 percent of the kits collected by SANE nurses and 81 percent of the other cases.
And the attention to detail is critical when it comes to prosecuting sexual offenders.
“I couldn’t stand the thought that someone committed a crime and wouldn’t be held accountable because of something a nurse didn’t know,” Goldman said.
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