Source: Carolina Public Press
Attorney General Josh Stein has announced a new program to certify nurses to aid sexual assault survivors, according to the The Carolina Public Press. Sexaul Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) are trained in compassion care in responding to sexual trauma.
The $2 million dollar grant from the state’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative grant will train 50 additional nurses to fill the gap of trauma care. Last year, AG Stein told reporters he wanted to see a SANE nurse in every hospital system. Yet, the Republican-led legislature hasn’t moved in that direction. “Let’s see if we can creatively come up with ways to advance the number of SANE nurses in North Carolina,” Stein told Carolina Public Press.
Currently, there is only a limited number of SANE nurses in North Carolina. There is no centralized tracking of these services, so in some cases victims of rape have to travel to multiple hospitals a day to find the care they need.
The Southern Regional Area Health Education Center runs the SANE training. Sheree Hays, the administrator for continuing professional development at Southern Regional AHEC says increasing SANE nurses is a “critical need” across the state, “especially in the rural areas of south-central North Carolina that Southern Regional AHEC serves.”
According to the Carolina Public Press, the training includes 40 hours of classes through the International Association of Forensic Nurses, eight hours of N.C. Board of Nursing-approved training on sexual assault investigations and crime lab processes, and 16 hours of on-site clinical training at one of four sites around the state.
“Having a SANE nurse is such an important response to a victim of sexual assault that we’ve made it a real priority to train as many of them in North Carolina hospitals as we can,” Stein said. The Attorney General’s office will work to make sure nurses are spread evenly throughout the state.
