A victim of a sexual assault may choose to go to a hospital and undergo an exam in which a nurse collects evidence from her body using a sexual assault forensic evidence kit, commonly called a rape kit.

Over the last four years, some of the victims who went to Whidbey General Hospital were referred to another hospital because nurses didn’t have specialized training to administer the rape kits.

In some cases, the rape victims chose not to make the long trip to another hospital and rapists went unpunished.

That’s about to change. Margie Porter, the executive director of Citizens Against Domestic and Sexual Assault, won a $4,600 grant to bring rape kit training to Whidbey Island. And for finally solving a problem she’s been working on for years, the Office of Crime Victims Advocacy presented Porter with the Moving Mountains Award last week.

“I’m very excited,” she said. “It just goes to show you can get things done if you keep at it.”

At least 16 nurses have volunteered to go through the training later this month, which just happens to be Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

“It’s perfect timing,” Porter said. “Hopefully this will bring some awareness to the issue. People forget we have sexual assaults on this beautiful island.”

According to Porter, studies show that only one in ten rapes are reported to authorities, so it’s vital to make the process of reporting as easy as possible.

The training, called Sexual Assault Nurse Exam or SANE training, will be given by nurses from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. The funding for the training comes as part of a larger, $45,000 grant originating from the federal STOP Violence Against Women grant program, which is administered through the state’s Office of Crime Victims Advocacy. The money is split between CADA, law enforcement and the county prosecutor’s office.

Porter said she worked out the details of the training, and the way rape kits will be handled, in a meeting with hospital officials and Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks.

Banks said he’s been frustrated in the past with hospital personnel’s reluctance to administer rape kits and has made calls to hospital officials to get them done. Part of the problem, he said, was a misunderstanding of what prosecutors want from the nurses.

“There was some confusion,” he said. “They felt like they would be asked to testify as experts and would have to spend days in court.”

In fact, Banks said the rape kits have step-by-step instructions and the nurses aren’t expected to be experts, though the training will definitely be helpful.

In addition, Porter said CADA provides advocates who will respond to the hospital and provide victims with emotional support.

“We are all working together as a team,” she said.