Nurse Examiner Interview Paper

The interview I completed was with Cindy Dikmen, who is an emergency room registered nurse and a certified sexual assault nurse examiner at a local hospital. In order to be a certified sexual assault nurse examiner, a registered nurse must complete 40 hours of certification training. In addition to the training, shadowing experienced sexual assault examiner, is also recommended in order to build skills. Training also teaches how to interview victims in order to record an accurate statement. The physical examination focuses on areas where the person was assaulted. The nurse has to take photographs and use swabs to collect DNA evidence of semen, saliva or sweat. Blood or oral swabs are also taken to provide a baseline DNA of the victim. The nurse is also responsible for collecting evidence such as clothing. Once all the forensic evidence is collected the nurse is responsible for packaging it into a sealed sexual assault kit to preserve evidence for law enforcement purposes.
Cindy mentioned that this 40 hours of training is only required for certification but is not required by …show more content…
She said it may be partially due to a terrible experience she had with a training nurse or because it is protection for her own mental health. However if she ever did feel traumatized, the hospital provides counseling services and frequently encourages staff to connect with other staff to make sure they have a community support system. Cindy did speak of one time where a non-verbal disabled male had been sexually assaulted by a trusted caregiver. She was filled with sorrow for the victim and a lot of anger toward the caregiver. She said this case was especially hard because she had to have the victim reenact the event through dolls so that they could document what had happened. Going through that process was more emotionally impactful then what she had experienced