SANE/FNE
Albuquerque SANE Collaborative
Sarah V. Tafoya is a native New Mexican with fifteen years of nursing experience, primarily in emergency medicine. She went to nursing school at 16 years old while she was also in high school. She graduated as a licensed practical nurse at the age of 18 years old. Sarah then went on to obtain her associates in the science of nursing and then a bachelors in the science of nursing from the University of Texas in Arlington. She has worked the last eight years in mainly level 1 trauma centers as an emergency department nurse. She obtained her board certification in emergency nursing in 2019. In 2022, Sarah completed Aspen University's masters in the science of nursing program with a specialization in forensic nursing.
Sarah was a rape crisis advocate for four years in the Dallas, Texas metroplex(Collin County), working with The Turning Point Rape Crisis Center. She began travel nursing for five years as an ED nurse but settled in the Northern Virginia/Washington D.C. area for awhile. She completed the D.C. Forensic Nursing adult and adolescent sexual assault nurse examiner training while there. She had already completed the Tribal Forensic Healthcare sexual assault nurse examiner training online but chose to do it again with the training of the D. C. forensic nurses. She also completed the Tribal Forensic Healthcare pediatric sexual assault nurse examiner and intimate partner violence nurse examiner training. She worked with the Forensic Assessment and Consultation Team (FACT) in Fairfax, Virginia before leaving the Northern Virginia area. Sarah returned home to Albuquerque, New Mexico and was hired with the Albuquerque SANE Collaborative where she currently works as a forensic nurse examiner/sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE). She also is the SANE for the Sex Trafficking Allied Response Team (START) working with a multidisciplinary team to assist victims of human trafficking.
