Tennessee Tech Whitson-Hester School of Nursing will use a $1.5 million grant to recruit and train sexual assault nurse examiners.
The professionals conduct exams to collect evidence for rape victims and sexual assault survivors. Tennessee Tech Nursing Professor Ann Hellman said sexual assault survivors in the region have to travel to Chattanooga, Knoxville, or Nashville to see a sexual assault nurse examiner.
“It’s going to be a great benefit to our community and provide that advanced, specialized care to those people who have endured sexual violence and are trying to make sure that they are safe afterwards,” Hellman said.
Hellman said the program has partnered with Cookeville Regional Medical Center to provide SANEs in hopes of expanding the region’s care for sexual assault survivors.
Hellman said one out of four women and one out of six men experience sexual violence in their lifetime. Hellman said it is important to have a nurse who is specifically trained to handle sexual violence victims, as working with those patients makes many medical care providers uncomfortable.
“They recognize that this is a very traumatic experience, that it’s a very sensitive time for that patient, and many are just uncomfortable with that situation,” Hellman said. “But with people with this training, they are more at a comfort level. They recognize signs of trauma, they know how to intervene appropriately, they are really good at reassuring the patients that whatever reaction they had is logical, depending on how their brain is processing and reacting to that trauma.”
Hellman said the school of nursing recruits nurses who have been certified for at least two years. Hellman said nurses will go through a 40-hour training course.
“That training consists of course, specialized care for survivors of sexual violence, trauma-informed training, how to deal with people who have experienced traumatic experiences, and understanding how that changes the way in which they process the event,” Hellman said. “It tells us how our brains react when we are faced with a very traumatic event and how that changes our perception and our ability to function afterwards. It also includes information on drug-facilitated sexual assault, those types of things that are given to people to further victimize them, and from all of that, as well as teaching them the specialized methods of collecting evidence or performing a forensic medical examination.”
Hellman said not only do nurse examiners provide medical care and collect evidence, but they also provide court testimonies.
Tennessee Tech began this training in 2024. 26 nurses have been fully trained to provide services over the past year.
