Sexual Assault Survivors Receive Care From Specially Trained Providers

Survivors of sexual assault may face many physical and psychological challenges while they heal, but a new cadre of nurses at Hofstra Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies in Long Island, New York, looks to improve care to this unique set of patients from the first time they arrive in the hospital.

The Centers for Disease Control reports that even though many cases go unreported, sexual violence is shockingly commonplace, with one in three women, and one in four men, experiencing it.

Heidi Wilkie, a rape survivor from Omaha who helped found a SANE program at Omaha Methodist Hospital, strongly agrees with the need for such training. “I wanted to build something good out of something so bad,” she told ABC News. There were no such trained health providers at the emergency room where she first went to receive medical care. She says that having a trained examiner do the initial exam “makes a big difference,” describing how another provider had to oversee the nurse do a forensic exam on her.

ABC News:  Sexual Assault Survivors Can Now Receive Care From Specially Trained Providers