As recent as 2018, rape survivors in much of Middle Tennessee had to travel to Nashville General Hospital as the only location where specially trained nurses could perform forensic sexual assault exams.
Katrina Brown, who at the time was an emergency room nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said the lack of access was frustrating and discouraging for the victims, who sometimes traveled hours from rural areas and were required to be escorted to the hospital in a police car.
Recognizing the problem, city leaders pushed to expand Nashville’s Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) program, and today, the landscape looks much different, Brown said.
Nashville now has several locations, including Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where victims can receive an exam from a SANE-trained nurse.
Still, for more rural areas outside of Nashville, victims still face hurdles, said Brown, a nurse examiner who now heads Vanderbilt’s SANE program.
But there are efforts to change that and expand access in rural areas — particularly near Columbia, Pulaski in Middle Tennessee and the rural areas surrounding Shelby County.