Jackson Free Press

Shalotta Sharp brings 16 years of experience as a nurse and a passion for helping and healing to every aspect of her job with the Mississippi Coalition Against Sexual Assault. As a certified Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, or SANE nurse, Sharp joined the organization full time in 2010 so that she could teach others how best to help trauma patients, specifically those who are victims of rape and other violent sexual encounters.

Sharp wasn't thinking about anything as specific as being a nurse for rape victims when she graduated from the University of West Alabama in 1996 with an associate's degree in nursing. Within a year, though, she was working in the emergency room at Meridian's Rush Hospital. One day, her nurse manager picked her to attend a week's training for sexual assault victims. At that point, she didn't even know what a rape kit was.

"Basically, we were picked as warm bodies" for the course, Sharp said. Rush had a quota to fill for the class, and she was in it.

"I thought, 'OK, cool: an 8-to-5, Monday through Friday, easy-breezy week for me,' she said. "Day one of the content was so heavy that it was a little overwhelming. I didn't realize how much I didn't know. By day three, we had had a lot of psychological content, and it hit me that not only am I learning about sexual assault patients, but I'm learning about trauma patients. It hit home with people I had known in my life that had been through this."

One of those people was her youngest daughter, Sharp said, who was raped while she was in college. Sharp only found out about her assault when Jo tried to commit suicide months later. "My daughter had a very difficult time after this event," Sharp said. "She dropped out of school, out of life, lost her friends from Troy and had horrible bouts of depression."

"Like so many, I had thought, 'Well, that's sad, but get up and move on,'" Sharp said. Through the course, "It hit me how long-term these effects were." She returned to Rush Hospital full of ideas on how to change procedures in the emergency room. She gives credit to Dr. James Cady for helping her start a SANE program at Rush. That program is now self-sustaining. Sharp began teaching others in 2005.

Sharp, 47, lives in York, Ala., with her husband of 16 years, Ronnie. She travels all over Mississippi and to West Virginia training nurses, law enforcement and advocates on how to care for victims of sexual assault. Certified to care for both adults and children, she also continues her work in the ER at Rush Hospital. She is the only certified SANE pediatric nurse in Mississippi, and one of only about 300 worldwide.

"If I had to do it all over again, I think I'd try to get involved sooner, Sharp said.

"I can honestly say that this is my dream job. It's the best job in the whole world."