Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) Program

Choice Research Associates (CRA) began working with the District of Columbia Forensic Nurse Examiners (DCFNE) focused on the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) program in April 2017.  The goals of this project were two-fold: 1) To explore the process of the SANE program from dispatch to examination to advocacy; and 2) To determine if the SANE program needs to be expanded beyond MedStar Washington Hospital Center (MWHC) location. To complete this project, we focused on gathering information on the SANE program through a document review, interviews and meetings with various partners and stakeholders, and analyzing available data from SANE partners – including data from Network for Victim Recovery of DC (NVRDC). In addition, surveys related to the level of awareness of the SANE program in the community and on college campuses were disseminated and the data analyzed. The executive summary is available here. Request a copy of the full report here.

Sexual Assault Services Infrastructure Development Project of DC (SASID) 

This project which began in 2019 and funded by the DC Department of Health, is a collaboration between DCFNE, the D.C. Hospital Association (DCHA), Network for Victim Recovery of DC (NVRDC), and DC Hospital stakeholders including Medstar Hospital Center, Children’s, Howard, George Washington, Georgetown, Sibley and United Medical. The objective of SASID is to implement a city-wide policy to improve the transfer process of patients requesting a medical forensic exam.

The evaluation of SASID sought to assess the efficacy of hospital transfer policy training efforts and to identify systematic areas for improvement and/or collaboration regarding the care of patients who experience sexual assault in the District.  Interviews with stakeholders were conducted to understand hospital protocols before and after the policy change, to identify barriers in the transfer process, and to explore possible data sources to quantitatively evaluate the impact of the SASID project.

Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Adult and Adolescent (SANE-A) Training Evaluation

The DC Department of Health funds DCFNE to provide SANE-A training to Registered Nurses or Nurse Practitioners.  Since 2020, Choice Research Associates (CRA) has worked with DCFNE to create evaluation tools to obtain feedback from participants about the training. Tools include daily surveys with opportunities to assess individual lecturers and the content of the different sections of the training. Follow-up surveys at 6 and 12 months capture whether the training was utilized (and if so, how); interest in additional training, and one post-training knowledge test.