Putts

Thanks for your suggestion. We have a very active program with many clinical opportunities. We have 6 nurses but 4 of them work part time or full time jobs. This leaves only 2 nurses to cover most of the time. We have another 3 nurses waiting to complete the clinical but they too work full time and are seldom available when we call them with a case.

Thanks for your quick response. Getting consent is not the issue. It seems like the issue is boiling down now to whether or not we should even do the kit. The most recent case was a female with a gunshot to the head, on life support. Essentially they were waiting for her respirations to cease, and expected this with in 24 hrs. We were aware that the evidence may have already been compromised. I am also aware that our Coroner has collected post mortum kits with sucess as the body temp decreases etc, and evidence can still be obtained. So the issue became : Do we do the kit now or wait and let the Coroner complete it? I did do the kit but now I am having second thoughts. Would it have been better to wait and let the Coroner do it? I base this primarily on how difficult it is to position the person in order to view the cervix ( if possible) and gather evidence. In a way I feel more damage can be done. I have also done another case where the patient woke up after 2 weeks and was able to identify the perpetrator. As a team we are now trying to set up protocol regarding completion of a kit on an unconsious patient when they are on life support. I would appreciate anyone's feed back regarding their policy on this.

I am a SANE and work with several other nurses. We have recently started to look at the situation where a patient is unconscious and the request has been made for a rape kit to be completed. We are trying to set a protocol for this and I am wondering what other programs are doing regarding this. There has been alot of dicussion regarding this. Some feel it is ok as long as they have gotten permission from the appropiate family member to proceed.Others feel the would rather wait until the person wakes up or collect the kit , then hold it till the person regains consciousness. Either way it appears to be more of an ethical dilema. I am looking for any input you can provide. We will be discussing this in the next week. Thanks so much.

Hi Everyone, Congrats to all of you who are SANEs or who are in the process. The field is so rewarding. I need some feedback and suggestions. We are in the process of revamping our SANE program. In Sept 2007 an ad was placed in the local newspaper for nurses wanting to become SANES. 10 nurses from our area applied and completed the 40 hr didactic training. Only 2 of us have completed the clinical and are currently doing the exams. The difficulty we are having is that all of the nurses have other jobs and are never available to observe the exams. Our area is also in the process of being the focal point for education of SANEs. We are now looking at the best way to utilize other nurses. The ideal would be a semi retired or retired nurse that would be interested, as they have more time not only to complete the clinical but also to cover the day time hours. Does anyone have any suggestions?