Women & Infants Hospital offers a comprehensive Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, SANE, program for adult female victims of sexual assault in the state. Dr. Erica Hardy, director of infectious disease at Women & Infants, answered PBN’s questions about the program.
PBN: What services does the SANE program offer?
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HARDY: Women & Infants is able to treat patients in the acute emergency setting after sexual assault as well as provide comprehensive follow-up care after sexual assault. In terms of our SANE services, Women & Infants has providers who are trained as sexual assault nurse examiners. The WIH emergency department is a unique setting in that there are providers trained in both OBGYN [obstetrics and gynecology] and emergency medicine and so can care for a broad range of conditions, including acute care after sexual assault. Patients who access the emergency department can receive advocacy services in the emergency room, post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent sexually transmitted infections and HIV, emergency contraception, lab testing as indicated, and comprehensive follow-up care after leaving the emergency department as well as linkage to ongoing advocacy and support services.
PBN: How can someone access the SANE program?
HARDY: Anyone who presents to the emergency department has access to services provided at WIH to care for those who have experienced sexual assault and need medical care, support services and comprehensive follow-up care.
PBN: How many patients does Women & Infants’ SANE program treat annually?
HARDY: It’s hard to quantify how many victims of sexual assault come into Women & Infants. Not all patients complete a collection kit and there are many forms of sexual assault.
PBN: What other resources are available for victims of sexual assault?
HARDY: Many other resources are available for survivors of sexual assault. In addition to the medical care that patients receive in the emergency department, and the follow-up medical care including testing for infections including HIV, we work closely with sexual assault advocacy centers in Rhode Island, as well as law enforcement advocacy to provide support and psychological support services after trauma. We work with college health centers and counseling centers to link students to support services and provide follow-up care that is right for every individual patient. The services patients need can be different depending on the needs of the patient.
PBN: What efforts are underway in Rhode Island to address sexual assault?
HARDY: There are many efforts underway to address sexual assault. From the work of the Rhode Island State-wide task force, several products came from the work of this group which we hope are helpful for patients. The R.I. Model Protocol for Response to Adult Sexual Assault Cases can be found here. The Sexual Assault FAQs, an excerpt can be found here as well as a link to the full resource document.
Together with Dr. Susan Duffy, we have developed an online curriculum to teach trauma-informed care of sexual assault survivors to emergency providers. It can be accessed here.
With colleagues we are applying for grants to hopefully increase statewide training of nurses to be SANE – sexual assault nurse examiners, which will increase the capacity in the state to optimize care for survivors of sexual assault. Ongoing multidisciplinary groups are meeting to coordinate state-wide care of sexual assault survivors, so access is increased across the state, and care is optimized for all.
(UPDATE: Corrects Women & Infants Hospital’s SANE program not lone program across the state)
Katie Castellani is a PBN staff writer. You may contact her at Castellani@PBN.com.
