Monday, October 12, 2009
Lawrence Memorial Hospital sending sexual assault victims to another hospital because of a lack of certified nurses, as had happened on Sept. 19 to two students, is unacceptable. Reporting rape and sexual assault is difficult enough, and being turned away by the people who are supposed to offer help only further harms the victim.
Lawrence Memorial Hospital and the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office are working together to get more nurses Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) certified. In a letter that District Attorney Charles E. Branson wrote after the Sept. 19 incident to Gene Meyer, Lawrence Memorial Hospital president and CEO, Branson repeated his “offer of assistance in recruiting nurses as volunteers for SANE training.”
According to the International Forensic Nursing Certification Board’s Web site, SANE certification requires nurses with a minimum of two years of experience to complete a sexual assault program. This can be done through a 40-hour class or an equivalent three-hour credit course at an accredited institution. They must then have supervised practice as a SANE nurse until they have proven to be competent. It is required that the nurses get recertified every three years.
Janice Early-Weis, Lawrence Memorial Hospital director of community relations, said nurses would have to travel to Tennessee to take the class, but the hospital pays for all travel expenses and the cost of the class.
With the SANE certification costing the nurses nothing, the questions must be asked as to why nurses aren’t getting certified.
“Not every person is suited to do that kind of procedure and exam,” Early-Weis said. “It’s very emotional.”
She said that it’s a very technical and complex procedure.
Another aspect of the certification that may turn nurses away is that they may have to testify in court.
In his letter to Meyer, Branson also offered his assistance to “provide courtroom training to your SANE nurses so that they would be more confident in their expectations of what would happen if they would be called to testify in court.”
Nick Flaucher, Olathe nursing student, said a lot of nursing students didn’t know about SANE certification. He said a professor had never mentioned it in any of his classes.
Although the University doesn’t offer SANE certification, it’s important for professors to let nursing students know what it is and how much certified nurses are needed.
Early-Weis said there were currently six SANE-certified nurses at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Six nurses is not enough to accommodate the number of sexual assaults that take place in Lawrence.
The recent attacks have shed light on a problem that needs to be fixed immediately. Branson should be applauded for the work he has done with Lawrence Memorial Hospital to get more nurses certified.
The University should work to create a course that certifies nurses, allowing nurses to become certified in Lawrence. Despite the obstacles facing nurses who want to get this training, this important and much needed certification should be a priority. Lawrence Memorial Hospital should not be forced to turn away victims because of a lack of certified nurses.
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Comments
Editorial: Turning away victims unacceptable
It's not like the sent her home- they transferred her to another hospital. That's not turning her away, it's getting her help from someone qualified to help her. It's essentially the same procedure as when they transfer sick children to Children's mercy or gunshot victims to KUMED. It's unreasonable to expect every hospital to be fully equipped with every service; especially when there is a shortage of good nurses in the first place (http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media/FactSheets/NursingShortage.htm).
Editorial: Turning away victims unacceptable
Please. Do you think it's reasonable to expect somebody who has already been through a traumatic experience to drive all the way to Topeka or Kansas City (especially with gas prices being as high as they are), and before the relevant evidence has been cleaned up?
Editorial: Turning away victims unacceptable
Don't be stupid- as soon as she cried 'rape' you can assume they either put her in an ambulance or police car- they wouldn't have let her drive anywhere until evidence was collected. And even if it is unreasonable to send them so far away, it's what must be done to ensure that care would be taken with the girl's case. Unless nurses are paid better, there will always be a shortage of necessary medical assistance, because you have to face the fact that in nursing, much like teaching, there just aren't that many qualified people willing to go into the profession out of the goodness of their heart. In such trying economic times (and as hendrix mentioned, with gas prices as high as they are) there has to be better financial incentive for these nurses to be certified and, as it is, paying them a barely livable wage and expecting them to pull 12 to 24 hour shifts just isn't cutting it.
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