NURSE: Sarah, so the first thing I'm gonna do is just swab the inside of your mouth. So I'm just gonna swab underneath your gums on the lower level and the higher. That's it.
SUSAN CHASSON, STATEWIDE COORDINATOR, UTAH COALITION AGAINST SEXUAL ASSAULT: When we look at evidence-based approach or evidence-based care, we're actually looking at three things. First of all, what does the research tell us about the care that we're giving? And in sexual assault, this is very important because unlike any other type of nursing care, at the end of the day, we are gonna sit before a court of law and have to justify what we have done, as far as both patient care and our conclusions about the evidence we've collected and the injuries that we've observed.
NURSE: Okay, is it okay if I swab that area, looking for his saliva?
WOMAN: Mm-hmm.
NURSE: Okay. I'm gonna moisten these swabs slightly with sterile water, so that they can potentially pick up DNA a little bit better.
SUSAN CHASSON: Secondly, there isn't a lot of research out there. It's kinda hard to send 100 women out to be studied, 50 of them to be sexually assaulted and 50 of them to have consensual sex, and then say, well, we now know what this looks like. So while we do have more and more studies out there, we don't have the same level of research and evidence that you have in other fields of science. So, our practice experience guides our evidence-based care.
NURSE: Got a little bit of a bruise back here. Is that tender when I touch it all?
WOMAN: A little.
NURSE: Yeah? Okay. So I'm gonna take a picture of that, alright? We'll wait a few minutes, make sure we don't have anything else.
SUSAN CHASSON: And then, finally, it comes down to patient preferences. That needs to be a part of evidence-based care. We need to look and say, well, the evidence tells me if I collect a swab this way, that may be the best way of doing it. But if the patient says, "I don't want that done", we have to be willing to stop or change things and do it differently.
NURSE: You doing okay?
WOMAN: Yeah.
NURSE: Alright, perfect.