UNC Medical Center SANE team members are now seeing patients at UNC Hillsborough so patients don’t have to be transferred to Chapel Hill for care.
SANEs offer the standard of care for medical forensic exams for those who have experienced sexual trauma. The ability to be seen promptly by a trained SANE is especially important from a medical perspective as well as to preserve evidence for victims of sexual violence.
UNC SANE members also recently played a key role at the inaugural NC SANE Symposium held in Fayetteville. Jenny Anand, RN, and Corrie Jolly, CPNP helped lead planning and implementation efforts to transition what was previously a one-day “update” meeting into a more comprehensive and robust two-day conference. This year’s meeting included a clinical training curriculum with gynecological teaching associates, and added a mentorship program to help novice SANEs stay actively engaged and advance in the field of forensic nursing.
ABOUT THE UNC SANE PROGRAM
The mission of UNC’s SANE program is to provide those affected by sexual violence a safe place to receive timely, compassionate, competent care by a sexual assault nurse examiner who is proficient in medical forensic evaluation and treatment.
UNC Medical Center’s Forensic Nursing Program, housed in Emergency Services, has one of the leading SANE programs in the state. The program currently has 18 trained SANE members, who in 2023 saw 207 patients coming from 25 of the state’s 100 counties.
NORTH CAROLINA’S STATE-WIDE EFFORTS
In recognition of UNC’s active program, several UNC SANE representatives were recently invited to attend a press event in which NC State Attorney General Josh Stein announced the end of NC’s Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit (“rape kit”) backlog. At one point, North Carolina had the longest backlog of untested kits in the country, holding over 16,000 kits.
Through bipartisan efforts to fix the problem, a milestone was reached in which all of the kits were tested. Read a press release about the event via this link and learn more about our Forensic Nursing Program via our Instagram page.
In conjunction with the recent press event, Stein commented, “SANE nurses are heroes – they give victims compassionate care after one of the worst moments of their lives and give law enforcement crucial evidence for investigations. I’m grateful they do this critical, difficult work. It’s vital to our efforts to deliver justice for victims and survivors.”
“I am so proud of the efforts of UNC’s dedicated and highly professional team of SANEs, said Dr. Karen Serrano, a faculty member with the UNC Department of Emergency Medicine, and Medical Director of the UNC Forensic Nursing Program.
“They constantly embark on efforts to improve the state of SANE care in NC, from leading state-wide clinical trainings to increase the supply of SANEs, to collaborating with physicians, nurses, and pharmacists to improve individual patient care.”
We invite you to learn more about the UNC SANE program.