South Texas Forensic Nurse Project

The purpose of this award is to establish or expand Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) programs that will offer medical forensic care, advocacy, and other victim services to sexual assault survivors on college campuses. The primary goals of this program are to: 1) establish or expand SANE programs that will improve the delivery of sexual assault medical forensic care, advocacy, and other victim services to sexual assault survivors on campuses using coordinated community response strategies and 2) build the campuses' capacity to train and retain SANEs.

The South Texas Forensic Nurse Project (STFNP) will establish a program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) that will permit on-campus access to Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs); increase the number of certified SANEs in the Rio Grande Valley; promote forensic nursing as a career path for future nurses; provide more comprehensive and thorough advocacy for victims and survivors on campus; and address the needs of victims and survivors by confronting and dispelling harmful stereotypes and stigmas surrounding violence victimization, especially sexual violence. This project is a collaboration between UTRGV's campus-based advocacy office (Office for Victim Advocacy & Violence Prevention or OVAVP), Student Health, the School of Nursing, and other campus and community partners. Four main elements comprise this project: Student Health Component, Undergraduate Nursing Component, Graduate Nursing Component, and SART Component. This project will both expand existing programming and create new programming on campus. CA/NCF