The Longwood community’s ongoing dialogue with Centra on the lack of SANE nurses and rape kits available at the local hospital continued during a meeting this Friday afternoon. Centra representative Diane Ludwig fielded questions from concerned students and faculty members who were invited to work on a solution to the issue.
Ludwig continually made the point that Centra was aware that victims having to be transported from Farmville to Lynchburg in order to be seen by a SANE nurse was an “inconvenience.” However, they feel that it is a benefit for victims to be seen by experienced SANE nurses so that the forensic information that is gathered will be more powerful if a case is taken to court. Ludwig went on to say that victims are no longer transported to Lynchburg in a police car, but are now taken in ambulances.
Many of those in attendance felt that this change was not enough with the general consensus being that what Longwood wants is to either have Lynchburg SANE nurses dispatched to Farmville when necessary, or to have one or more of the Farmville location’s current nursing staff to undergo the forty hour course which is necessary to become a SANE nurse.
“This is not a financial issue, but rather an issue of volume,” said Ludwig, referring to the fact that the Centra site in Lynchburg serves a population of roughly the size of New Jersey, while the Farmville site has much lower volume of patients. Ludwig continued, “We have to consider every community.”
While many feel that the current system is not working, Ludwig assured those at the meeting that they were “following the national trend.” However, she did go on to say that “they were not stuck in a system.” Still, no major decisions have been made at this time. Ludwig said that the suggestions made in that meeting would be brought back to those in charge of the final decision at Centra.
To conclude the meeting Justin Pope, Longwood University’s chief of staff had this to say to Ludwig. “You describe the world as it is; there is also their world as it could be.” No further developments on this issue have been reported.
