Just finished my SANE classes...

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, Emergency, SAFE.

I am going to be a SANE (adult and peds) through the ER i work in. I finished my classes last week and will have a formal training and preceptorship with the other awesome SANE nurses I work with.

Im very nervous of course, about the time I will be on my own and attempting to complete the exams and evidence collection. I'm terrified ill miss something or do something that will ruin everything for a sexual assault patient.

Any caring soul want to share what they're learned over the years or even very recently? This has been something that I've desired to do for years. :D Thanks all.

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

Have you sat in on a live exam yet? Once you do that, it seems to become less daunting ... at least it did for me. I realized that these were still patients, and we nurses know all about caring for patients. :) Just be meticulous in your collection and documentation and you'll do well. One of my SANE coworkers developed a cheat sheet/checklist that went in the logical order of how we do exams at our facility, step by step, and I use that sucker every time! Thanks for being a brave soul and providing this extra service for people. It can be emotionally taxing, you might almost need to have a CISD moment like after a code with some cases. I'm not a trained peds examiner, just adult/adolescent, but the peds cases I've seen come through our ER are especially hard on all of us.

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Congrats! What program did you use?

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Im kinda curious does male nurses have a chance as a sane or they prefer female?

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
Im kinda curious does male nurses have a chance as a sane or they prefer female?

We do get male SANE patients, and we also have to do suspect exams on males (and sometimes females!), so there is a chance a SANE patient will be a male. We have a couple of SANEs in training who are males .... I think it's all how you approach it, and it shouldn't be an issue. If the patient is adamant, we will tell them they can come back for their SANE exam when the next examiner's call time starts because it'll likely be a female examiner. We are working with a small pool of examiners to cover our schedule, so that's the reality. At no time is a SANE patient unclothed without a same-sex chaperone, even if the SANE is of the same sex -- just to protect everyone. We used to have a male SANE on staff, and it wasn't an issue with him, ever.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, Emergency, SAFE.

ELRUP,

The hospital that employs me held their own training that was open to the public for a fee. It was free for me and some coworkers b/c we work there. It was a 48 hour didactic week with 20 hours of prelecture coursework and a preceptorship program at our hospitals. I know that prior to this class, the hospital paid for some online courses for the other nurses who have been doing SAFEs for a while. We had Diana Faugno speak for us, she is a pioneer for SAFE and has been doing this since the 80's.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, Emergency, SAFE.

Killerbee,

We have 2 male SANE nurses. Theyre allowed to be SANEs, they have to be chaperoned through the exam by a female if the patient is a female, but they can do everything the female SANEs can do. Theres not much of a push by males in my area to be SANEs, but they can be if they choose. One trained with me. The other male SANE has been doing this for years and has had no issues.

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Thanks for the replies! Hopefully I can land on this specialty in the future! :)

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Hey! I was wondering, would you be able to email me the checklist u speak of?

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
Hey! I was wondering, would you be able to email me the checklist u speak of?

Sorry, I don't have it any longer.

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