Human Trafficking Victim Identification, Assessment, and Intervention Strategies in South Texas Emergency Departments

Sex trafficking screening and intervention in the emergency department: A scoping review

“…The 23 included articles were summarized according to study characteristics including study type, aim, geographical information, and type of ED (Table 1 ). 3 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 …”

Identifying Human Trafficking Victims - World Leaders and Health Institutions

“…While law enforcement agencies or the legal communities look at the legal aspects surrounding potential victimization, clinicians are more likely to discover useful diagnostic signs or symptoms that can be used to identify trafficked victims (Bauer, Brown, Cannon, & Southard, 2019). Trafficking assessment and intervention efforts of the care providers may prevent further exploitation and lessen the risk of severe physical and mental consequences (Dols et al, 2019;Kaltiso et al, 2018;Testa, 2020). However, human trafficking victims often go unnoticed in health care settings and their delicate health needs are often undetected (Gibbons & Stoklosa, 2016; McDow & Dols, 2021; Nguyen, P. T.…”

“…In an emergency department setting or during the process of caring for multiple emergently ill patients in an acute setting, clinicians may miss significant signs that would indicate that a patient is the victim of trafficking (Gibbons & Stoklosa, 2016). Care providers lack the experience, training, and knowledge that is needed to assess and rescue victims of trafficking (Dols et al, 2019; Nguyen, P. T. et al, 2018; Testa, 2020). In particular, health care providers are reluctant to ask sensitive questions of a potential trafficking victim because they are uncomfortable in doing so (Nguyen, P. T. et al, 2018).…”

“…The increase in victims' identification enhances access to interventions and resources (Nguyen, P. T. et al, 2018). Such identification followed by the appropriate intervention removes the victim from any further risk of harm(Dols et al, 2019;Kaltiso et al, 2018;Testa, 2020). Traffickers tend to have several victims and being able to identify one victim may benefit other victims and save the lives of others(Gibbons & Stoklosa, 2016).Identifying the Trafficked VictimsVictims are mainly identified through reporting by friends or family(Stanford et al, 2021).…”

Who Cares for the Emergency Nurse?

“…In this issue of the Journal of Emergency Nursing, there are several articles that highlight the suffering emergency nurses experience in practice, as well as some strategies that can be used to combat compassion fatigue and build compassion resiliency, including mindfulness practices. Dols et al 8 completed a descriptive study exploring existing processes for identifying, assessing, and intervening with victims of human trafficking. This is 1 example of how emergency nurses witness human suffering in their daily practice.…”