This Spring, Medical Students for Choice (Lauren Shapiro, COM ’21, Kristen Insardi, Noha Ahmed, COM ’22 and Laura Knapik, COM ’22) held an exceptional talk on Sexual Assault Awareness. Polly Campbell, RN, BS, BA, spoke to a lecture hall filled with first and second-year COM students about forensic nursing, also known as Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE). Polly is the director of ANE SANE, a grant-funded program aimed to educate and train nurses to provide comprehensive and informed care for victims of sexual assault. In Maine, 14,000 people experience sexual violence each year, but in 2017, only 448 cases were reported due to stigma and fear. Because of this, it is vitally important for physicians (and future physicians) to advocate for patients whom they believe are victims of sexual violence.
During the lecture, Nurse Campbell described the ways in which SANE nurses interface with physicians in the hospital setting, and passed around sex crime kits for students to examine. Medical facilities use these kits for medical forensic exams if the patient consents. The medical/forensic evidence they collect may include: hair, blood, debris, bodily fluids, clothing, photographs, and fibers. The collection of evidence is critical as it can corroborate or refute the victim’s statement. “Injury or physical need takes precedence but try to preserve as much evidence as possible,” Nurse Campbell explains. Not all hospitals have SANE nurses on call, and to transport evidence is a high contamination risk. Therefore, physicians need to be knowledgeable of who to call and to have a back-up procedure in place in case a SANE nurse isn’t available.
Molly Louison, the Child Advocacy Center Program Manager for Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine (SARSSM), addressed the importance of sexual assault centers as agents of primary prevention, using community education and prevention training to help change the prevailing culture that accepts and promotes sexual assaults. In addition, SARSSM has a 24-hour helpline, and a Sexual Assault Response Team (SART). SART advocates in the hospital setting, and accompanies survivors through reporting and beyond. Their services are available to anyone affected by sexual violence, not just survivors or victims. The philosophy behind SART is that it functions to restore agency to victims of sexual assault. “We want their decisions to be their own,” Molly Louison explains.
SANE NURSES AND SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS
Medical Students for Choice with Molly Lousion and Polly Campbell, RN, BS