Sexual Assault Education & Training

Provincial Health Care Initiative - LearningHub courses

The first of three online modules developed by the Sexual Assault Service, for anyone supporting people who have been sexually assaulted, is now available on our LearningHub: Sexual Assault Care. The course is open to all and takes approximately 20-25 min to complete. It is structured around activities, quizzes and illustrative examples.

About

SAS helps communities throughout BC improve their capacity to respond to sexual assault by: 

  • Sharing resources with health care providers
  • Consulting in the development of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) and physician-based sexual assault programs
  • Promoting an integrated model of care that supports partnerships across and between the disciplines of health, justice and community, including those specializing in services for Aboriginal, youth, and newcomer populations
​Sexual Assault Examiners

​Sexual Assault Examiners 

Sexual assault examiners are MDs, NPs or RNs. NPs and RNs who act in an examiner role are called SANEs (Sexual assault nurse examiner) 

  • ​Sexual Assault Examiners are specially trained to provide comprehensive and sensitive health care for survivors of sexual assault and are trained in all aspects of the sexual assault examination, including provision of emotional support, physical assessment, documentation of injuries, forensic sample collection, provision of medications, writing a medical-legal report and testifying in court.  
  • Examiners work closely with community-based sexual assault centre staff, police, and emergency department staff. 

Becoming a Sexual Assault Examiner  

BCIT Forensic Health Science offers an excellent training program for nurses, please contact them directly for details. Examiner training usually includes: 

  • Philosophy of patient-centred care 
  • The social context of sexual assault 
  • Medical-legal options of care 
  • Obtaining informed consent 
  • Gathering patient medical and assault history 
  • Physical assessment 
  • Prophylactic medications for sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy prevention 
  • Documentation of injuries 
  • Forensic sample collection 
  • Genital examination 
  • Drug-facilitated sexual assault 
  • Cultural diversity issues 
  • Youth 
  • Writing a forensic report 
  • Testifying in court​​

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