No abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is seen as a serious health risk factor for women with significant acute and long-term health consequences and it affects women from all ethnic and socioeconomic groups. Knowledge of these consequences of IPV may help emergency department (ED) professionals to identify these women and provide them with appropriate care, including information on a variety of community services, and refer those women to such services if necessary. The study aimed to describe the frequency of ED visits by women exposed to physical intimate partner violence as estimated by ED professionals (nurses, practical nurses, emergency medical technicians) and identification of acute IPV. In this study 'partner' is defined as a woman's husband, former husband, current or former cohabitant or partner. This design was used as part of a larger, descriptive, cross-sectional multi-centre and multi-method study. Data were collected from 28 EDs in 13 Finnish hospital districts. Altogether 488 questionnaires were returned, which yielded a response rate of 51%. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and quantitative content analysis. Findings showed that 48% (n = 231) of the ED professionals reported that they encountered women in IPV relationships at least once a month. Over one-fifth of the ED professionals reported having repeatedly encountered the same women visiting the ED for IPV related injuries. Over half of the participants reported having problems 'often' or 'now and then' when identifying women exposed to IPV. Those with training on IPV estimated that they had identified women exposed to IPV more often. To conclude, the research suggests that improvement of identification of acute IPV requires that training be arranged and jointly agreed written procedures for handling IPV be introduced.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious health problem worldwide but is often not identified by health services. The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of healthcare patients and documentation compared to the baseline study (2008-2012). The sample (N = 798) consisted of visits to a central hospital in Finland that had been marked with the ICD-10 codes for assault (X85-Y09) and physical abuse (T74.1) during the years 2013-2017. The data was analyzed with content analysis. Among the IPV visits (n = 110), partner-or spouse-related perpetrator coding was poor (11%). Victims experienced multiple injuries, and the violence increased with female gender, alcohol, and nighttime. The insufficient use of perpetrator codes underestimates the incidence of IPV and minimizes their usefulness for surveillance.

This study aimed to examine possible changes from 2008 to 2012 in the skills of health care staff in identifying and intervening in domestic violence (DV). A longitudinal descriptive study design with volunteer samples (baseline; n = 68, follow-up; n = 100) was used to acquire information regarding the present state and needs of the staff in practices related to DV. The results of the baseline survey were used as a basis for planning two interventions: staff training and drafting practical guidelines. Information was collected by questionnaires from nurses, physicians, and social workers and supplemented by responses from the interviews. The data were analysed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. A chi-square test was used to test the statistical significance of the data sets. In addition, participants' quotes are used to describe specific phenomena or issues. The comparison showed that overall a small positive change had taken place between the study periods. However, the participants were aware of their own shortcomings in identifying and intervening in DV. Changes happen slowly, and administrative support is needed to sustain such changes. Therefore, this paper offers recommendations to improve health care providers' response to DV. Moreover, there is a great need for evaluating the training programme used.