Male nurses and SANE

And please don't misunderstand me.

I'm not burying my head in the sand saying that only female rapes are important. I'm not saying male rapes don't happen. I'M SAYING THEY ARE UNDERRPORTED. And therefore, not enough work to make a go of being a male SANE nurse to treat males.

Look at your stats: In San Fran, 9.8% of 528 is less than 53 cases, a year. Not enough work to hang a career on. At Beth Israel, 25 cases A YEAR.

In both cases, within major cities, you would have to do alot of SANE work on females to make a living. And I don't think it's empathetic to put a woman in the position of even being allowed/forced to make a decision on a male nurse, in such a situation.

I can understand anecdotal evidence that some female nurses (read people) aren't understanding of male rape. But I can't see that men would be better; I'd suspect they'd be worse, and in any case, anecdotal evidence isn't scientific evidence.

I don't think it's appropriate for a male SANE nurse to push themselves on a female patient, and I don't think there is enough business to be a male SANE nurse for other males/children unless you are just working them PRN in your ED career. And even then, I think females would be more empathetic at that job generally (or more important, be PERCEIVED AS MORE EMPATHETIC), even if you can site specific anecdotal evidence otherwise. . .

I'm a male nurse, I'm very sensitive to being 'excluded'. I think males can and should do L&D, PP, etc. I'm very pro-male nurse in almost every aspect of nursing.

Except this one.

And even then, that's just my 2 cents.

~faith,
Timothy.

I say go for your dreams.

There may not be much of a need for male sane nurses, and hospitals might be hesitant about hiring a male sane nurse. I guess I would get in by working as an ER nurse and obtaining the SANE certification. I would think that if they saw that they had a good nurse on their hands that has a passion for helpping victims of sexual assult they would use you as a SANE nurse. I would definately think it was a plus if they could give the sexual assult victims a choice between a male and a female nurse.

I don't know all the interworkings of hospitals or SANE nursing, I'm still a student, but I'm sure there's a way.

I also have to say I think it's wonderful you want to do this. It takes an awesome person to go into that area of nursing.

Frosty, I'm so sorry to hear of your experience. I think you have a lot to offer as a future SANE nurse and hope you don't give up on your plans. It's sad that there are no forensic trained nurses in your area. Perhaps you could find some other nurses interested in training together and start some sort of program in your area?
A nurse who works per-diem on my unit is a SANE nurse, and was telling me a bit about it recently. From what I recall, in my area, SANE nurses volunteer for on-call slots, and can cover several hospitals. I'm not even certain if they are paid when they are called in. But there is always a trained SANE nurse available to every hospital in the area.

The task force begins its work in Oct. Like you say, change takes place slowly. It will be interesting to see what comes of all of this. Our goal is to have a SANE center in every county in Oklahoma. In my area, the SANE nurses are volunteer. This is not to say it will always be so. In fact, we want to be able to compensate them in some way.
At the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center where I attend, we recently got into an ethical discussion of male on male rape, and female on male rape. To anyone out there who doesn't believe the last, whether you agree with it or not, it happens. Period. A female on male along with male on male rape took place this past week in our jurisdiction. I won't tell you the ages--it would astound you and make you ill.
Making a living as a SANE nurse may not be accomplished at this time. Nursing isn't all about making money, it is about caring enough to give time and energy to care in which you believe. I have just spent 7 long hard days taking care of the evacuees of Katrina. We had 1400 of all ages, had a multitude of serious illnesses, two deaths, and two births. All of those hours for every medical person on the base were volunteer, and will be for the next year.
If you really want to be a SANE nurse, when the training opportunity presents itself, go for it. Take all the other forensic nursing classes and law classes as well, then you will be able to make a living doing forensic nursing. Just remember, do it for the RIGHT reason, which isn't just money.
Jackie

May I ask what military branch you served? I find [not calling you a liar, btw] this hard to believe to have gone on for 18 months in the military! Sounds more like prison, to me.