Maryland is facing a nursing shortage, but those trained in collecting forensic evidence from sexual-assault victims are in especially short supply, making 24-hour assistance difficult.
“It?s quite intense. It needs to be, because we?re participating in the process that could put somebody in jail,” said Linda Kelly, clinical program manager of the Sexual Assault Forensic Exam program at Greater Baltimore Medical Center in Baltimore.
The State Board of Nursing offers the SAFE program, which requires 40 hours of classroom instruction and 40 hours of clinical work for certification.
“It takes professional training to gather that evidence and be able to present it as evidence in a court setting,” said Baltimore County Police Capt. Marty Lurz, who instructs nurses in the SAFE program.
“It takes a special person to do it, and a dedicated person to do it.”
However, the job expectations and meager financial rewards discourage many people from being SAFE nurses, Kelly said.
These nurses are on call at late hours, must carry pagers in case of emergencies and receive only a couple of dollars an hour with no benefits.
“It?s part of the beast that we all act on every day,” said Dawn Lewis, 41, of Baltimore, who is training to be a SAFE nurse.
“We?re all nurses; that compassion is part of us.”
Other factors include family obligations, job commitments and the emotional strain of working with sexual assault victims, said Leslie Anderson, coordinator of Mercy Medical Center?s SAFE program in Baltimore City.
The overall shortage in nurses has been called a public health crisis. From 2000 to 2006, Maryland reduced the nurse vacancy rate at hospitals from 14 percent to 10 percent. But this year, the number of unfilled nursing jobs jumped to 13 percent.
The SAFE nurses? work has resulted in higher conviction rates in sexual assault cases, Anderson said.
Before the program started in the late 1980s, emergency room residents or doctors were untrained in gathering forensic evidence from sexual-assault victims. If the evidence, which can be delicate, was not labeled and stored properly, it was unusable in court, Kelly said.
Police rely on SAFE nurses because of their combined medical and forensic training. They can determine whether a sexual assault actually occurred and whether DNA evidence is available to identify the attacker, Lurz said.
“The SAFE Program is invaluable to the State?s Attorney?s Office and the citizens of Baltimore,” Jo Anne Stanton, chief of the Sex Offense Division at the Baltimore County State?s Attorney?s Office, said in a recent letter.
“As a result of the excellent examinations the SAFE nurses perform, we often have physical evidence that makes our case much stronger. … It would be impossible for us as prosecutors in the Sex Offense Division to do our job without the work [of] the SAFE nurses.”
BY THE NUMBERS
SAFE nurses on call:
Howard County General Hospital: 9
Anne Arundel Medical Center: 6
Baltimore Washington Medical Center: 1
Mercy Medical Center: 15
Sinai Hospital of Baltimore: 0
Carroll Hospital Center: 7
Harford Memorial Hospital: 4
Upper Chesapeake Medical Center: 1
TO BE A SAFE NURSE
Criteria for the State Board of Nursing?s Sexual Assault Forensic Exam program:
Forty hours of classroom instruction including:
» Notifying police and having an officer speak with the victim, even if he or she has not interest in filing charges
» Presenting evidence in court and collecting evidence correctly
» Helping victims both physically and mentally
Forty hours of clinical training including:
» Observing sexual-assault forensic exams
» Conducting part of an exam with a supervisor present
» Completing three exams without assistance
Upon completion of the program, the nurses are expected to obtain evidence including blood and urine toxicology reports, internal injuries, fingernail scrapings, oral swabs, photographs of injuries, bite marks, saliva and other bodily secretions.
“It can take a nurse up to a year to do the clinicals required by the State Board of Nursing. … We don?t get [an assault] case or two cases a day,” said Linda Kelly, clinical program manager of SAFE program at Greater Baltimore Medical Center.
SAFE training occurs once annually in a program co-sponsored by Mercy hospital and Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, both in Baltimore City.
