MORGANTOWN – The job of sexual assault nurse examiner – SANE – may not be well known, but SANEs play a key part in aiding rape victims. They play a dual role: that initial compassionate ear and counselor, plus the medical professional who gathers the forensic evidence to begin a criminal investigation.
“You do have to be passionate and you have to be trained,” said Margaret Denny, SANE Project Coordinator, the West Virginia Foundation for Rape Information and Services (WVFRIS). “And you have to know when to be silent and allow the patient time to work through the process.”
For evidence collection, she said, “There’s no second chance. You have to get it right. It has to be timely, it has to be accurate. It’s a big lift but it’s important and there are certainly not enough of us in the state.”
Training is extensive and it costs money. FRIS provides that training for free. Every year, WVU’s Council for Gender Equity helps FRIS raise some of that money.
This year, the council is sponsoring Champagne for SANEs. There are two parts: an online auction which began last week and runs through 8 p.m. Thursday; and a Thursday fundraiser at Table 9 in the Wharf District in Morgantown.
The Table 9 fundraiser runs from 4-9 p.m. A portion of proceeds from meal sales – in the restaurant and take-out — benefits the FRIS Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner’s Fund. Table 9 will also offer a special cocktail and mocktail and donate 100% of the profits from the sale of those to FRIS.
For the online auction, people can go to 32auctions.com/champagne4sane to bid on baskets; all the money from those sales goes to FRIS.
Amanda Ray, the council’s outreach committee chair, said people who don’t wish to bid on baskets can still make donations to FRIS. The fundraising goal for the auction portion is $2,000.
Last year’s fundraiser, Ray said, was canceled because of COVID, so this is technically the fifth. And it’s been adapted for COVID with the online auction instead of a live silent auction, and the take-out option for those who aren’t yet ready to sit in a restaurant. A Facebook live auction link will be set up at https://fb.me/e/6AbdgNNIF.
FRIS State Coordinator Nancy Hoffman said they can train about 20 to 25 nurses at a time and like to do at least four training sessions per year.
Denny detailed the training, which takes a minimum of 40 hours. There is a 24-hour self-paced online training with testing along the way. That’s followed by 16 hours of classroom training to practice hands-on skills, including rape kit collection, photography, interviewing and speculum examination.
Then there’s 25 hours of clinical training at a medical school clinical to work alongside a preceptor and gain more first hand knowledge, to see a kit collected by an experienced SANE and be observed doing a collection. SANE trainees go to rape crisis centers to spend time with advocates and they’re encouraged to witness a sexual assault court case.
Just the clinical portion, Hoffman said, costs about $2,700. “It truly is a commitment on the part of nurses to do the training.”
Hoffman writes grant applications to raise money for this, she said, but grants are competitive and not a long term sustainability option. The council runs their only fundraiser. “They’ve been really committed and supportive in that effort. We greatly appreciate them and the recognition of the important role nurses play in collecting the evidence and addressing the trauma and the recovery of victims.”
Denny said SANEs are trained to know how to be calm and supportive and to begin the healing process from that first encounter. Because the forensic exam begins the legal process and because it takes place in a hospital setting, she more often prefers to refer to the women as patients rather than victims.
SANE programs are growing across the state, Denny said, but not every hospital has one. FRIS has a West Virginia initiative that calls on every hospital to have a plan for how patients are treated and cared for, so that if they don’t have a SANE they have a plan in place.
“It is not just one single person,” she said. “It takes a big collaborative effort.” The SANE makes the initial encounter but she always should immediately call a victim advocate at the nearest rape crisis center. Advocates are important because they have the training to help the patient beyond the forensic encounter.
The SANE won’t be the first person a victim encounters at the emergency room, Denny said, so hospitals are encouraged to develop protocols to ensure patients are treated the way they should be from the moment they walk in the door.
The SANE should also develop good relationships with victim advocates and the rape crisis centers, law enforcement and prosecuting attorneys.
Typically, Denny said, the SANE won’t see the patient again after the forensic encounter. “Sometimes that is your one and only chance to have that patient trust you, to help walk the patient through the process and really to make a difference and to begin that healing process.”
Denny’s full-time job is chief nursing officer. She serves FRIS part time. “I feel it is an absolute privilege to have this, to be part of this,” she said. “I just hope that that’s what they remember in their healing process, that I somehow made it better or easier, and they felt that my knowledge and my demeanor and the way I spoke to them helped them get through a very difficult time.”
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