School of Nursing Provides SANE Training
Georgia Southern University’s School of Nursing is Georgia’s leader in nursing graduates each year, and with the help of a donation received last fall in the amount of $35,000, nursing faculty Kari Mau, DNP, and Nikiya Lewis, DNP, are ensuring students are being provided the best curriculum based on industry and community needs.
The donation, gifted by nursing alumna Christie Palmer and her husband, provided an opportunity for Mau and Lewis to integrate the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) training program into a women’s health course for family nurse practitioners at Georgia Southern.
“Forensic medical exams provide vital care to victims of sexual violence by promoting improved mental and physical health, collecting better evidence to build a case, and leading to higher rates of prosecution,” stated Lewis. “In Georgia, the need for more sexual assault nurse examiners is dire. Lack of access to these specialists statewide impedes victim access to forensic medical exams when they are most in need and most likely to come forward after a traumatic encounter.”
The school partnered with Mosaic Georgia to provide the didactic training portion of the course and nursing alumna Brittany Odum assisted in teaching the clinical component.
“Numerous barriers exist to increase the number of SANEs, including access to qualified trainers, the length of training programs, few training opportunities and cost. The School of Nursing is in a phase of steady growth in nursing graduates and by adding this training program to our advanced practice nursing curriculum, we expect to have a direct impact on the number of trained SANEs in the state of Georgia and ultimately increase healthcare access for victims of sexual violence.”
Seven students, alongside Cara Anderson, MSN, nurse practitioner with Georgia Southern’s Health Center, Lewis, and Mau successfully completed the SANE training and can serve as SANE nurses in communities that need nurses to provide sexual assault forensic exams.
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