Privacy and the Medical Forensic Exam: FAQs for SANEs Serving Patients on Campus

Sexual assault on campus is a difficult process to navigate for victims and when they seek care from SANE programs, they may have questions about privacy that SANEs are not able to answer. In 2018 the Victim Rights Law Center (VRLC) in partnership with IAFN, developed a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) to assist SANEs with determining which federal laws apply to a campus victim’s sexual assault medical forensic exam records. During this webinar, Marissa Korbel from VRLC, and Angelita Olowu and Kim Day from IAFN will review the recently developed FAQ document for SANE. SANEs are very familiar with the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), but may not be as familiar with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Both of these laws may impact the patient’s privacy, and it is essential that SANEs who are providing care to patients on and from college campuses’ understand this. These two laws will be outlined in this webinar and the frequently asked questions about them will be discussed. Objectives: Define HIPAA and FERPA and what these laws mean with respect to the medical forensic record. Outline the privacy implications that this can have for the patient. Discuss common questions that SANE have asked and outline the responses to them.

Presented by: Marissa Korbel from VRLC, Angelita Olowu from IAFN and Kim Day from IAFN

The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this webinar are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.


Webinar FAQs


Are CE credits offered?

Credit is not offered for this recorded online event if you are not a member. However, once the webinar is completed a certificate of attendance can be obtained after completing an evaluation.

Contact hours will be awarded for this activity for IAFN members who register, attend the activity, and complete an evaluation.  This event is specifically targeted to nurses. The International Association of Forensic Nurses is an accredited provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. The planners, presenters, and content reviewers of this webinar have disclosed no conflicts of interest. 

If you are an IAFN member, please click hereto view this webinar in IAFN’s Online Learning Center and earn Nursing CE.

Interested in joining IAFN? Click here for more information on joining. 


How is the certificate of attendance obtained?

Simply register to watch this video through the FREE form below, watch the video on the next page, and then complete the follow-up evaluation. Please DO NOT share a the direct link of the video. We need to track who watches the video due to our grant funding requirements.

How long is the video?

This video is approximately 1 hour 30 minutes.

I’m having technical trouble, where can I find help?

Contact us at projects@forensicnurses.org. We’d be happy to help!

Register using the form below and get started on this online course today!