INJURIES/WOUNDS ASSOCIATED WITH SEXUAL ASSAULT AND RAPE

Introduction

Every rape or sexual assault is different.  The victims, perpetrators, occurrences, reactions, injuries, and every other detail are all unique to each situation.  For this reason, it is hard for anyone to make a standard protocol for dealing with a victim of rape or sexual assault.  Therefore, rather than have a standard protocol, it may be better to make every examiner aware of trends and know to look for anything that is suspicious, whether it is a trend or not.  Each aspect named above has trends that a nurse examiner should be aware of.  For example, there are a number of reactions that victims experience that appear in many cases.  Because these reactions occur more often then others, it is vital for an examiner to be aware of these reactions and how to deal with them.  But it is also important that examiners keep open minds to any kind of reaction, so they do not find themselves stumped when they are faced with an uncommon reaction.   This same theory applies to any of the aspects above, and throughout nursing in general.  It may be wrong to say that any wound or injury is common for a sexual assault or rape victim to experience, but there are many kinds of wounds that are important for a nurse examiner to look for, because they occur more often. If a victim has any of these wounds or other less common ones, it will be critical to document and collect evidence from them to provide a more thorough investigation. Although not all sexual assault or rape victims have physical injuries, it is important for nurse examiners to be aware of many common wounds that are associated with sexual assault and rape, so they can more easily recognize them.