Providing Best Practice Sexual Assault Emergency Department Care Using a Virtual Curriculum (ADIEM Sponsored)

Currently, the training for medical providers in the care of the sexual assault survivor is in person, often limited to short lectures as part of a larger Emergency Medicine curriculum, if it exists at all. The traditional in person educational curriculum is labor intensive to organize, necessitates in person trainings for providers with varying schedules, and lecturers who are multidisciplinary and may not be able to come together for a one-time training. Ongoing post-graduate training may not exist at all. This means that many providers are not receiving robust and ongoing training in the trauma-informed medical care of the sexual assault survivor. With the advent of the technology available to design online and computer-based training programs, including sophisticated simulation programs (often utilized in training emergency medicine providers) our group has developed an educational curriculum which is being utilized to augment the training of medical providers that currently provide medical care to survivors of sexual assault in an emergency room.

In this didactic session a multidisciplinary group of experts will discuss high yield topics in emergency care of sexual assault survivors and outline their experience utilizing a virtual educational curriculum specifically designed for emergency providers. The session will focus on topics that supplement traditional medical education and clinical experience to expand provider skills. The session will address performing medical evaluations, evidence-based treatments, trauma informed care, patient advocacy, collection of forensic evidence, documentation, and the complimentary roles of the SANE and the emergency medicine provider. The didactic content will be based on national training standards and give providers practical tools that they can use in practice. A diverse group of experts will provide instruction through didactics and an open panel discussion and Q&A portion, as well as demonstrate how this education can be provided through virtual self-study educational modules with embedded assessments. 

Presenters:

  • Susan J. Duffy, MD, MPH
  • Erica J. Hardy, MD, MMSc
  • Amy Goldberg, MD
  • Lori Clements, BSN RN MA SANE

Authors

  • Susan J. Duffy, MD, MPH

    Alpert Medical School, Brown University

    Susan Duffy, MD, MPH, Vice Chair Academic Affairs Deprtment of Emergency Medicine, Professor Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics, Brown University. Medical Director RI SAFE Program I am a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Hasbro Children's Hospital, in Providence ,RI and my career has focused on alleviating disparities in emergency care and improving care for children, youth. As current Vice Chair for Academic Development, and former Medical Director, I have over 28 years of experience developing and implementing quality programs and as an educator and researcher. I have significant experience in assessing and developing systems for emergency care and community ED outreach, particularly working with multidisciplinary experts formulating best practices and guidelines for patients with complex medical and social issues including victims of sexual trauma and domestic violence, care of children with mental health crises. I am the Medical Director of the RI SAFE program and PI on a Department of Justice Grant (RI-SAFE) to develop a sexual assault forensic examiner program in Rhode Island EDs I was also awarded a Brown Physicians, Inc. grant to investigate the Implementation of the RI-SAFE program. I am the recipient of a Brown Grant to develop and investigate a virtual education program for clinicians to Improve Care for Victims of Acute Sexual Assault that is now a CME program offered to medical providers throughout the region. Icollaborate in national efforts through the American Academy of Pediatrics, HRSA-Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMS-C), and other medical organizations in the US and Canada to improve equitable care for children with mental health issues presenting to EDs.This has resulted in the collaborative development of best practices for ED patients with acute mental health crises, most recently involvement with HRSA supported EMSC initiatives to develop tools for ED providers to respond to the children’s mental health crisis, facilitate emergency departments in an EMSC/EII quality collaborative to improve care at risk for suicide, developing virtual training for ED pediatric providers on agitation management through an AAP educational platform, through collaborative effort sponsored by HRSA to develop a toolkit to assist EDs to improve preparedness to care for children with mental health crises, through a NIMH Grant to develop an ED screening tool for Adolescent Suicide (ED STARS) and a NIMH Grant to assess the impact of acute trauma on the development of PTSD using social media (ED EAR) and an AAP Healthy Tomorrows Grant to Incorporate Adolescent Substance Abuse Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment into pediatric practice (Adolescent SBIRT).

  • Erica J. Hardy, MD, MMSc

    Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University

    Dr. Hardy is an Assistant professor of Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Divisions of Obstetric Medicine and Infectious Disease. Her research interests include infectious diseases in women, especially the peripartum period, sexually transmitted infections, trauma informed care and acute follow up of the sexual assault survivor. She has ongoing research examining the vaginal mucosal immunology longitudinally aftyer sexual assault as well as collaborating to develop a novel model teaching trauma informed care of the sexual assault survivor.

  • Amy Goldberg, MD

    Brown University

    Amy Goldberg, MD, is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and an attending physician at The Lawrence A. Aubin Sr. Child Protection Center at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. She attended medical achool at Boston University, completed pediatric residency training at University of Massachusetts Medical school and fellowship training in Child Abuse Pediatrics at Hasbro Children''s Hospital and The Alpert Medical School of BRown Uiversity. She is a recent past member on the sub- committee for Child Abuse Pediatrics for the American Board of Pediatrics. Dr. Goldberg serves on the advisory committee for the Rhode Island Children’s Advocacy Center, is a member of the RI Human Trafficking Task Force and is on the Rhode Island Children’s Fatality and Review Team. She is actively invovled in training medical trainees at all levels on subjects related to child maltreatment and trauma.

    Dr. Goldberg’s clinical and research interests include Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking, Injury patterns in Children with developmental delays and differences and establishing normative data for patterns of physical injury She considers advocacy, patient care and medical education as her highest professional priorities.

  • Lori Clements, BSN, RN, MA, SANE

    Lifespan/Brown University

    Lori Clements is a Registered Nurse with 22 years of nursing experience. She has worked as a supervising RN in the areas of pediatrics, child and adolescent behavioral health, and adult medicine. She is the Director of the RI Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner (SAFE) Program. With her team she has implemented the first coordinated response for sexual assault patients across the Lifespan hospital system's emergency departments. She holds a BA in Psychology, BSN in Nursing, and completed a post baccalaureate Forensic Nurse Certificate program through John’s Hopkins University. She is currently completing her MSN with a Forensic focus. She is a certified Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) with 9 years experience working as a SANE and 6 years as a TeleSANE through the Massachusetts Department of Health SANE/ TeleSANE program.

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