The Sexual Assault Victim: What Every Nurse Practitioner Should Know

The behaviours and expressions portrayed by the victims of sexual assault when presenting in the health setting for the first time can be very confusing to the nurse practitioner. In some cases, such behaviours are often misinterpreted, documented with uninformed judgemental statements that potentially label the victim as a liar and can lead to maltreatment and secondary victimization of the victim of sexual assault as a patient.

This paper describes the victims’ experiences and related behaviours during the first week following trauma. It further explains neurological response by tapping into the brain and body reactions to sexual assault trauma as described by Campbell et all, 2011. Implications and guidelines for caring for victims during the first week are discussed.        

A grounded theory approach was used to conduct a longitudinal qualitative study of the victims of sexual violence immediately following the incident of sexual assault to the end of sic months thereafter. The purpose was to discover the process of recovery from sexual assault trauma as experienced and described by the victims.

Ten women participated through a series of in-depth interviews. Strauss and Cobin’s (1994)  grounded theory data analysis methods were used to for data analysis and discovery of the theory of recovery from sexual assault trauma, with the following concepts: Mental paralysis, Awakening, Pragmatic Acceptance, Turning point, Reclaiming what was lost, Defining own landmarks for healing and Returning to self.

The presentation will focus on the two concepts of the theory of recovery from sexual assault trauma i.e. mental paralysis and awakening becuase these are the initial responses and behaviours that are often  expressed by patienrs and observed by nurse practitioners when the victims of sexual assault first present for forensic medical care.

The purpose of this paper is to provide nurse practitioners with the neurological explanation of the sexual assault victims’ behaviours during the first week following sexual assault trauma by tapping into the brain and body reactions to sexual assault trauma in order to assist nurse practitioners with knowledge to influence positive clinical outcomes for the sexual assault victims as patients.