Nurses union raises concerns about sexual assault nursing examiner program

The Manitoba Nurses Union is raising concerns about a forensic program that examines sexual assault victims.

Nearly a year has passed since a mass resignation of more than half the staff in the Sexual Assault Nursing Examiner program. Since then, Shared Health said considerable work has been done to improve the workplace culture.

Shared Health told CTV News nearly all of the six full-time equivalent positions in the program are filled including an educator role. An additional hire into the program is starting next week.

Nurses in the program collect criminal evidence and provide support to sexual assault and intimate partner violence survivors. However, the Manitoba Nurses Union said the program is missing trauma-informed, community-based care.

The union said the program is based in Health Sciences Centre, meaning Manitobans need to travel to Winnipeg to receive care.

"I really want to see this program rolled out provincially so that patients from the north don't have to travel to Winnipeg, they can receive evidence-based trauma-informed care where they are," Darlene Jackson, the union president, told CTV News.

Shared Health said it is working to establish the program outside of Winnipeg. So far eight nurses from the Northern Health Region and two from the Prairie Mountain Health Region have completed a 12-week training course, with seven more rural nurses expected to start training next week.

The training these nurses are receiving is also raising red flags for the union. Jackson said nurses in the program previously required training through the International Association of Forensic Nurses program – an accredited, in-person course.

"One of the issues is that the training program that was chosen by Shared Health is not what we believe is an accredited program. It is a program that is done strictly online," Jackson said.

Shared Health says the course is consistent with the association's exams.

"This course, which teaches Canadian standards on clinical processes and evidence collection, is combined with several months of hands-on training and continued support and guidance from medical leadership," a spokesperson for Shared Health told CTV News in an email.

"The nurses who complete this training program are well equipped to support the care needs of patients seeking these services at an emergency department setting, with trauma informed, culturally appropriate care."