Lifetime intimate partner violence exposure, attitudes and comfort among Canadian health professions students

Abstract

BackgroundIntimate partner violence (IPV) is a widespread public health problem and training of health professions students has become common. Understanding students' prior knowledge, attitudes and personal exposure to IPV will aid educators in designing more effective curriculum. As interprofessional educational efforts proliferate, understanding differences across disciplines will be critical.FindingsStudents in the schools of Medicine, Nursing and Rehabilitation at a university in Ontario attend an annual daylong interprofessional IPV training. To measure perceived role and comfort with IPV and prior personal exposure, we administered a brief Likert scale survey to a convenience sample of students over three years. 552 students completed the survey; the overall response rate was 73%. The majority (82%) agreed that it was their role to intervene in cases of IPV; however Rehabilitation students expressed lower overall comfort levels than did their peers in other schools (p < .0001). Gender, age and prior training on the subject were not significant predictors of comfort. Seven percent reported lifetime IPV and one-fifth had witnessed IPV, but these exposures did not predict comfort in adjusted logistic regression models.ConclusionWhile the majority of professional students believe it is their role to address IPV in clinical practice, comfort level varied significantly by field of study. More than one fifth of the students reported some personal exposure to IPV. However this did not impact their level of comfort in addressing this issue. Educators need to take students' preexisting attitudes and personal exposure into account when planning curriculum initiatives in this area.

Assessing the Relation Between Attitudes Towards Gender Roles and Domestic Violence of Nursing And Paramedic Students

“…Nursing students experienced lack of the confidence in recognizing and responding to abuse, and felt in insufficiently prepared to deal with DV (15). Apart from these studies, Gerber and Tan (28) determined that nursing students have very positive attitudes towards domestic violence and abused women. As a result of these studies, it can be said that the knowledge and attitudes of the health science students are negative in general.…”

Student nurses’ knowledge and attitudes towards domestic violence: results of survey highlight need for continued attention to undergraduate curriculum

“…Results indicated that the majority of students believed it was their role to address DV in practice, but lacked knowledge related to the impact on the victim: 12% of nurses and 20% of the rehabilitation students could not understand why victims stayed in abusive relationships. It was also reported that personal experience of DV did not affect the level of comfort in addressing the issue (Gerber & Tan ). Another Canadian study with over 200 medical and surgical students who completed an online survey found many misconceptions about DV, including myths about traits of victims (Sprague et al .…”

Violencia intrafamiliar y abuso sexual: ¿cómo integrarlos al currículo de pregrado de medicina?

“…Y por último, un tratante no entrenado en violencia, que aun frente a la evidencia, busca retornar a su equilibrio "no registrando" o "minimizando" lo que observa y asumiendo que la víctima posee más poder del que en realidad tiene (Barudy, 1998;Ravazzola, 1997 A nivel nacional no existe información sistematizada en relación a cuánta formación reciben los médicos en su pre y postgrado en relación a VIF-AS. Hay acuerdo en la literatura internacional, sin embargo, en que esta formación es escasa, con falta de contenidos en los currículos, y con un abordaje aislado y más bien teórico (Gerber et al, 2009;Hill, 2005;Jamner et al, 2000;Miranda et al 2009;Narayan et al, 2006;Reece et al, 2005).…”

“…-Asumir la responsabilidad de autoformación en VIF-AS según las exigencias de su cargo. (Brandt, 1997;Gerber et al, 2009;Hill, 2005;Jamner et al, 2000;Miranda et al 2009;Reece et al, 2005).…”