By Melanie Kieve, Contributing Writer
Cherokee County to get health clinic
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The U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration has awarded a $1.49 million grant to the Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing to increase the number of sexual assault nurse examiners in the Southeast and U.S. Virgin Islands.
SANEs are registered nurses with specialized training to provide comprehensive, trauma-informed, best-practice care for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.
The three-year grant will create the Southeastern Alliance for Forensic Excellence Network, which will train sexual assault nurse examiners in partnership with 17 Alabama and 15 Georgia sexual assault/child advocacy centers, a health center in
the U.S. Virgin Islands, Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and Emory Healthcare, with hospitals and clinics in Georgia as well as a clinic in Cherokee County, N.C.
Together with these partners, the network will address system-level and structural barriers to SANE training and practice by utilizing teleprecepting, teleobservation and teletraining.
Since 2021, Emory University nursing faculty members have provided HRSA-funded SANE training in Georgia through the Emory Nursing Experience, a continuing education partnership between the Emory School of Nursing and Emory Healthcare.
With the new grant, this training will expand – increasing the geographic reach of the program and the overall number of trained and certified examiners. The population of the network’s service area is just over 27 million, with fewer than 221 certified SANEs to meet the needs of survivors of violence. The goal is to increase the number of trained SANES by 80 and certified SANEs by 56.
The training will focus on medically underserved communities by providing remote precepting, training and observation to SANE participants in those areas. The network will also offer a comprehensive participant support program – including goal planning, mentorship, counseling, continuing education and peer support – to foster a supportive environment for SANE training, practice and retention.
Grant director Trisha Sheridan said the grant builds upon the school’s history of work in sexual assault care and prevention – efforts that are sorely needed, given the realities of sexual assault and domestic violence. Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina all have higher than average percentages for 13 measures of intimate partner and sexual violence, according to a 2016-17 report from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey.
“Because SANE training alone fails to supply and maintain the number of SANEs needed, we need a support network to sustain SANEs, especially those working in underserved communities such as the 64 counties targeted for this project,” said Sheridan, who also serves as associate professor and director of the women’s health and gender-related nurse practitioner program at the Emory School of Nursing.
“We are grateful to HRSA for the opportunity to create a strong partner network that will provide critical support for SANEs, as they give sexual assault and domestic violence survivors the care they deserve.”
The Southeastern Alliance for Forensic Excellence Network is partnering with Hillman Associates LLC, a Pittsburgh-based evaluation consulting firm, to evaluate the network’s effectiveness and outcomes through comprehensive program evaluation and rapid cycle quality improvement methods.
This program is supported by the Health Resources & Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services as part of an award totaling $1,494,602.
Details: Visit HRSA.gov.