A new program being pitched by a group of Tomball Regional Hospital nurses aimed at providing improved care for victims of sexual assault is becoming increasingly popular across the state and could soon be in Tomball.

Robb White, RN, CEN and Melanie Aluotta, RN, CEN, SANE, discussed a proposal for a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) to be implemented at Tomball Regional Hospital during an Aug. 25 meeting of the Tomball Rotary Club.

The mission of the community-based SANE program is to focus efforts “to meet the immediate medical and forensic needs of sexual assault victims while providing professional, compassionate care.”

White explained that hospital nurses and doctors realize that when undergoing treatment, sexual assault victims are “retraumatized” during their medical care and forensic evidence collection.

“Not only have victims had to wait for a long time to be examined, but those who perform the exams often lack training and experience in working with sexual assault victims,” White said.

Uniform Crime Report statistics as of July 1 reveal that last year, the Harris County Sheriff’s Department received 281 calls for sexual assault, the Houston Police Department received 823, the Conroe Police Department 26 and the Tomball Police Department four. The report shows that in Texas alone, there were 8,286 reported sexual assault cases in 2009.

“We have a need for a SANE program,” White said.

SANE programs operate differently in each jurisdiction, but generally include a licensed SANE nurse who, according to Aluotta, must take part and pass a one-year training program that includes classroom and hospital-based instruction. In addition, SANE nurses are considered legal experts in sexual assault cases, so the program also requires attendants to view court proceedings.

White explained that victims of sexual assault typically require up to seven hours of care while at a hospital and on-duty doctors and nurses usually are not able to commit to that amount of time to one patient.

“This is something that’s going to take hours of my time and I’ve got four or five other patients,” he explained, whereas a licensed SANE nurse would have the time and training to properly care for a sexual assault victim.

In addition, White said that often times, emergency department staff regard the needs of sexual assault victims as “less urgent” that other patients, and therefore sexual assault victims often endure long waits in emergency rooms and “often are not allowed to eat, drink, or urinate” while they wait for care, in order to preserve possible evidence.

SANE nurses, however, could provide a much more rapid response and more personalized care.

“Where they exist, SANE programs have made a profound difference in the quality of care provided to sexual assault victims,” White said.

The program is not just a hospital-based entity. Providing support for the SANE program are regional law enforcement agencies, regional hospital departments, district attorney’s offices, agency crime labs and rape crisis advocates.

With so many agencies working together within the program, the idea is to better collect forensic evidence in order to lead to a courtroom conviction.

“Evidence collected by SANEs can help link the victim and suspect to the crime scene,” White said.

“Accurate evidence leads to more convictions,” he added.

White and other members of the Tomball Regional Hospital staff are currently seeking community support for funding for the SANE program, which includes training of nurses and costly examination equipment.

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