Greenview Hospital Begins Victims’ Program

By Hayli Fellwock, hfellwock@bgdailynews.com  

Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - Through a partnership between Greenview Regional Hospital, Hope Harbor and law enforcement agencies, the county’s first Sexual Assault Response Team went into action Monday.

Greenview, the only facility in Warren County to employ two sexual assault nurse examiners, initiated the program in an effort to help sexual assault victims in a time of trauma and confusion.

With two sexual assault nurse examiners on board, the hospital plans to make victims of sexual assault who come to the emergency room a top priority.

“The time and support that is needed takes one-on-one attention - not the hustle and bustle of doctors going in and out, so a special response team is needed,” said Susan Cherry, RN, director of nursing administration at Greenview.

“We hope more victims will feel comfortable coming forward, coming to Greenview, knowing that they’ll be taken right in,” said Nancy Nealy, RN, one of the hospital’s sexual assault nurse examiners. “They won’t be in the ER waiting room. They’ll be taken to a special room.”
Nealy is working with Fannie Carver, RN, who came to Greenview after working at T.J. Samson Community Hospital in Glasgow as a sexual assault nurse examiner.

One of the two women will be on-call around the clock and can call upon the other for assistance if the patient load becomes too great. They have also made arrangements to redistribute their ordinary, everyday patient load - shifting some tasks to co-workers - in the event that a sexual assault victim should visit the emergency room.

“It is a completely different role, but it’s still the rewarding experience of helping a patient - especially if we can aid in the conviction of the person who did this,” Carver said.

Nealy and Carver both underwent 40 hours of classroom training and 60 hours of clinical, hands-on training to develop the skills and expertise needed for their new jobs.

They will be working with law enforcement and community agencies such as Hope Harbor, a sexual trauma response center.

“Working with Greenview and providing these services to sexual assault survivors helps the victim learn how to cope with what has happened to them and learn how to move on to the next step,” said Misty Johnson, executive director of Hope Harbor.
 
The nurses will also be involved in evidence collection, whether it be bodily fluid samples or clothing worn by the victim during the attack. Police say having one or two people trained in evidence collection can help solidify the prosecutors’ case against the suspect.

“Most of the time, the person collecting the evidence off the victim’s body is not going to be (a police) officer - it’s going to be a nurse,” said Detective Brian Harrell with the Bowling Green Police Department. “We stand to benefit in giving these nurses the best training in collecting that evidence because they may need to make an appearance in court for us some day.”

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