What do you do when you’ve been sexually assaulted? For University of Oregon students, one of the first places they may turn to is the UO Health Center, where nurses Colleen Jones and Rebecca Hagerwaite are trained Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners.
UO’s SANE nurses have been on campus since 2004, trained by the Oregon Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force.
“Our job is to address the medical needs — their physical, their emotional and mental health and their safety,” Jones said. “A big point of our job is to try to reduce the impact that an assault is going to have on their life and their academic performance. Because the earlier that we intervene, the less likely they are to have the anxiety, the depression, the PTSD.”
When a student experiences sexual assault and makes contact with the health center either by phone or walking in, the clock is ticking to get them to see either Hagerwaite or Jones within 120 hours. The victim will talk to a triage nurse, and from there the health center will reassign that day’s appointments to prioritize the victim and their needs both physically and academically.
“We try to accommodate the student schedule, because a sexual assault takes so much from them,” Jones said. “It’s really important that they maintain some control.”
Jones, who has worked at the UO Health Center for 28 years, says that in order to reduce as much retraumatization as possible, they ask as few questions as necessary during their care. If the assault victim is female, they move towards needing emergency contraception or STI prevention via antibiotics.
Sexual assault victims who are students pay nothing for the services.
Under Oregon law, victims of sexual assault will not pay for services within seven days of the assault. But even after the seven day limit, the university has a small fund to use and Jones says that the UO Health Center has historically waived any charges regarding sexual assault.
“Between the state and the university and the health center, great care is taken to minimize at least the financial trauma,” Jones said.
The fund is especially important for victims who are still on their parents’ insurance, and worry that billing their insurance may alert their parents when they’re not ready to tell them what happened.
None of the health center’s employees  are mandatory reporters, and it’s up to the victim whether they talk to police or do a physical exam called SAFE, or Sexual Assault Forensic Exam.
“I think one thing that we really like to emphasize is that the student is in charge of their process,” Jones said. “They can choose to do a physical exam or not. We offer options, they choose the one that best fits their needs.”
In Oregon, anonymous exams are an option, where there’s a number instead of a name, and kits will be held in evidence for 60 years. Jones also emphasizes that they encourage counseling and offer a crisis counselor, Caren Golian for victims to talk to.
According to Jones, sexual assault is not unique to universities, and everyone should have a program like SANE.
“It’s a lot of money and time and effort to put into your education, and then to have potential violence at the hands of another human derail that?” Jones said. “Students are paying a lot of money to the university, and I think it behooves the university to take care of them.”