What Is A S.A.N.E.?
S.A.N.E. stands for Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner. These are nurses who go through specialized training to provide sexual assault medical aftercare. Their primary goal is your health and wellbeing. During an examination, if you want them to collect forensic evidence for the purposes of filing a police report, they can provide that as well.
If you decide on medical care after a sexual assault, there are Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) who have been specially trained to perform sexual assault exams at the Rape Crisis Center. S.A.N.Es have a minimum of two years’ experience prior to their availability to go through S.A.N.E. training. To access a S.A.N.E. exam, you can make arrangements by contacting the Rape Crisis Center hotline at 405-701-5660. These exams are free of cost to you and may be done within 9 days (216 hours) after an assault. You can bypass the hospital if an exam is all that is needed. This speeds up the process for you and will keep you from incurring any unnecessary costs.
What Happens During An Exam?
You direct how the exam moves forward. S.A.N.E.s will get a narrative of what occurred that will direct which components of the rape kit to complete. Based on what decisions you make about the exam and the type of sexual assault the most common type of exam follows this order:
• Health questions-surgeries, medications, health history
• Narrative of the assault-this is your words written down by the S.A.N.E. exactly as you say them
• Oral swabbing-the S.A.N.E. will swab your cheeks, lips, tongue, etc. to get your DNA
• Pictures-if there are any visible injuries, the S.A.N.E. will document them with a camera
• Pelvic exam (if needed)-this is similar to a gynecological examination
• Medications-STI and pregnancy prevention. We do not test for STIs, we will give you medicine to prevent them. You can choose if you want to take the medication.
This entire process is completed within a few hours. The S.A.N.E. will go as quickly or slowly as you are comfortable with and an advocate will be with you during the entire process. We do not test for STIs, we will give you medicine to prevent them. You can choose whichever parts of the exam are right for you.
If you are not sure if you were sexually assault but you feel like something just isn’t right with your body, but you weren’t conscious or you don’t remember, you can still get an exam. While an exam will not tell you definitively if you were raped, it can collect any evidence that might be there and the S.A.N.E. can provide medical care to see if you are injured. You can speak with an advocate who can provide information about rape and sexual assault.
You do not have to report the sexual assault to law enforcement to receive medical care at the Rape Crisis Center. If during your medical care you would also like evidence collection, the S.A.N.E. will be able to collect that evidence during the process of your examination. If you choose to have evidence collected but wish not to report at that time, it will be stored as a “Jane Doe/Anonymous” kit and will be stored anonymously with the law enforcement jurisdiction where the assault happened. S.A.N.E.s will enter your kit number into the OSBI sexual assault kit tracking system. You may call the Rape Crisis Center or law enforcement at any time and report this crime. You may contact the the SAKI team at 405-715-9421 or email at saki@osbi.ok.gov for more information regarding your sexual assault kit.
If you have questions about your care, you can contact the Coordinator of S.A.N.E. or Assistant Coordinator of S.A.N.E. at 405-701-5660. S.A.N.E.s are also available to provide expert testimony should your case go to court.
