MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — According to the CDC, over half of women and almost one in three men have suffered sexual violence involving physical contact in their lifetimes.
With a $980,000 grant, Georgia College hopes to provide more services to those victims.
"Our main responsibility is to provide the services necessary for those victims no matter where they're at,” says Josie Doss, the school of nursing's interim director.
She wrote the grant, and helped create the sexual assault nurse examiner program back in 2018. She says there's a great need for specialized care.
"One of about every six women will experience some kind of sexual assault in their lifetime. The service is important for this area because the need for any kind of medical services in rural areas is important. This grant was specifically designed to train providers in rural areas,” she explains.
Doss says that program includes a 12-week online course, and three-day in-person immersive training where they interact with subjects hired to play sexual assault victims with real stories.
She explains that victims of sexual violence are more likely to have depression, anxiety, and suicide. According to their research, Doss says that specially trained nurses have a better chance of comforting those experiencing PTSD, and lowers anxiety.
"I think what we're teaching in these programs goes beyond just those people seeking services for an acute traumatic event and feeds into those people who have not sought services early on, but are now starting to deal with that trauma,” she says.
Doss says that this program is mixing the holistic practices of nursing and forensic data gathering. It gives nurses pursuing continuing education to hone their skills in collecting photographic evidence and testifying in court.
“We know that the value of the evidence that we’re able to collect is what’s going to be the thing that prosecutes, or the determining factor in whether or not somebody who is actually guilty of victimizing someone will do time in jail.”
Kim Griffin is a nurse practitioner at student health services.
"It's just very, very important to know that it could happen to anyone,” Griffin says.
She was part of the first group that trained in 2018 and says it's useful for college campuses where sexual violence is more common.
"They gave us insight from a victim's perspective of what things to say, what things not to say, what things are appropriate during an exam. It’s the closest thing to a real-life scenario,” she explains.
Griffin says that sometimes her patients don’t realize they’re undergoing an examination regarding sexual assault. She says she finds herself using the skills a couple of times each month.
"It's just learning the cues of what to look for. How to bring that information out, things that-- before-- I would've just passed over and not really thought anything about a patient may have said,” she explains.
Doss says the program has trained 100 nurses so far, and can see an additional 400-500 more in the coming years.
She says they train all sorts of nurses, from an associate level to nurse practitioners.
She also says Georgia currently has 29 sexual assault treatment centers but many are understaffed, which speaks to the importance of this program.
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