As sexual assault rates rise, provinces face shortages of specially trained nurses | 24CA News
An assistant nursing professor on the University of New Brunswick says there’s a crisis-level scarcity of sexual assault nurse examiners within the nation.
Martha Paynter, who can be an creator and well-known advocate for well being fairness, says most sexual assault nurse examiners are informal workers who work on-call hours on prime of full-time nursing jobs.
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Paynter says in an interview that many nurses would like to do the work however are grappling with burnout and rigid working circumstances of their common jobs.
Health officers in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador say they’ve cancelled plans to coach sexual assault nurse examiners after too few nurses signed up.
The Ontario Nurses’ Association, in the meantime, says there’s a “concerning” scarcity of those specifically educated nurses within the province.
Statistics Canada experiences that the speed of police-reported sexual assaults in Canada rose by 18 per cent in 2021 in comparison with the yr earlier than, with the best will increase in Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick.
Sexual assault nurse examiners are forensic nurses educated to gather proof from sexual assault victims, and to assist them deal with trauma. They may also be known as to testify in courtroom.
Sheila Early, president of the Canadian Forensic Nurses Association, agrees that the present scarcity of nurses specializing in sexual assault stems from many years of the observe being relegated to an informal place.
Early says in an interview that the coaching is just not acknowledged as a specialty designation by the Canadian Nurses Association — however she says it ought to be.
The Canadian Nurses Association didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Feb. 2, 2023.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
