Victim forced to make long trek for sexual assault exam

BRANDON — A woman who had been sexually assaulted had to drive to Winnipeg to be examined by a specialized nurse because the Brandon hospital had no nurse available.

The patient went to the emergency department at the Brandon Regional Health Centre about two weeks ago and was told to return on a different day when a forensic nurse could complete a sexual assault evidence kit, Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said.

“To go to an emergency department and be told, ‘We can’t deal with you now. Can you go home and come back?’ … I think it just adds trauma to the situation that these people are already going through,” Jackson said.

The woman decided to drive more than two hours to access care at either Health Sciences Centre or Klinic Community Health.

Brandon has eight nurses who have been trained by the province’s sexual assault nurse examiner program, a spokesperson for Prairie Mountain Health said in a statement.

They are specially trained to provide trauma-informed care and forensic examinations for people who’ve experienced sexual assault or intimate-partner violence. Survivors are usually instructed to go to their local emergency room or nursing station to see a forensic nurse.

Jackson said forensic nurses work on a casual basis and may be helping another patient or they aren’t on shift when a survivor goes to an ER.

Outside of Brandon, the care is provided by rural doctors in the regional health authority who work in collaboration with law enforcement, the Prairie Mountain spokesperson said.

“I personally know individuals who have gone into a hospital after a sexual assault … in maybe a small rural or northern hospital where service hasn’t been available, and have waited for, you know, two, three hours in a busy waiting room, and finally just went home, and thought, ‘I can’t do this,’” Jackson said.

Survivors in western Manitoba may hesitate or choose not to report their experience because there’s no forensic nurse in their community and they’re unable to travel to Brandon or Winnipeg, Jackson said.

“It doesn’t matter where you live as a victim of sexual assault, you should have the ability to be examined where you are,” she said.

The Brandon Police Service has received 38 calls for service related to sexual assault so far this year, a spokesperson said.

While it’s unrealistic for every nurse working in rural and northern areas to be trained in the program, having a few forensic nurses dispersed throughout smaller communities could reduce any barriers, Jackson said.

Ashley Stewart, who works as a forensic nurse at Klinic, said the RCMP has developed a “fairly straightforward” sexual assault evidence kit that includes instructions to ensure support can be offered by health-care providers.

In her 17 years working in the profession, she’s heard of instances where survivors have been told to go to a different hospital because a trained nurse wasn’t available, the facility didn’t have a kit, or the only doctor on site couldn’t safely offer the care needed for a thorough examination, she said.

— Brandon Sun