Echo-Safe Program
The Texas Teleforensic Remote Assistance Center (Tex-TRAC) has partnered with Project ECHO® (Extension for Community Health Outcomes) - a guided-practice model created to reduce health disparities - to support health care providers serving patient populations in rural, military and underserved areas throughout Texas.
Through ECHO-SAFE, the Tex-TRAC team is able to extend its reach in supporting health care providers in emergency departments conducting sexual assault forensic medical exams using a knowledge-sharing approach where subject matter experts offer expertise through telementoring.
WHAT IS THE ECHO-SAFE PROGRAM?
Registered nurses, nurse practitioners and physicians from emergency departments at multiple locations connect at regularly scheduled times with a team of sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) experts using low-cost, multi-point videoconferencing.
During ECHO-SAFE sessions, SANE experts present short didactic sessions on forensic evidence collection procedures and best practices. SANE experts and/or hospital nurses may present de-identified patient cases to expert teams who mentor the nurses to manage patients who have experienced sexual assault.
WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?
Registered nurses, nurse practitioners and physicians at hospital sites contracted as part of the Tex-TRAC program are eligible to participate in ECHO-SAFE sessions at no cost.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
- The hospital site champion receives the ECHO-SAFE session agenda from the Tex-TRAC ECHO-SAFE facilitator in advance to distribute to their selected emergency department registered nurses, nurse practitioners and physicians. The agenda will include a Zoom link to connect to the session.
- Health care providers connect with a phone, tablet, laptop or any other device equipped with a camera using the Zoom link provided for the scheduled sessions found on the agenda.
- De-identified patient cases are presented, if and when applicable. The Tex-TRAC ECHO-SAFE facilitator will work with the hospital site to collect the proper information on a case.
- Attendees participate in didactic presentations (CMEs and CNEs are provided).
- Participants may be asked to complete periodic surveys evaluating practice style, knowledge and self-efficacy related to the ECHO-SAFE sessions.
BENEFITS OF PARTICIPATION
Emergency Department Nurses: Development and Retention
Through ECHO-SAFE, registered nurses in emergency departments acquire new skills and competencies, expanding access to care for sexual assault patients. They become part of a community of learners, increasing professional satisfaction and decreasing feelings of professional isolation.
Continued Learning
Providers also benefit from no-cost access to continued learning and specialist consultations during the ECHO-SAFE sessions. This enables emergency department health care providers to be part of a knowledge network. CNEs and CMEs will be offered with most ECHO-SAFE sessions.
WHO WILL ECHO-SAFE HELP?
It can be an enormous hurdle and an added traumatic experience for victims in rural, underserved areas to seek advanced health care that includes trauma-informed patient care and sexual assault forensic evidence collection. The trip to receive such care can be hours away from where the patient lives or the assault occurred.
Lack of access to specialty care is a major barrier for patients. Health care providers within isolated and rural communities often do not have the resources or education to support the forensic evidence collection and specialized care a sexual assault patient needs and deserves.
ECHO-SAFE supports health care providers in rural, underserved areas through education and evidence-based practice to provide high-quality care to patients within their communities.