Nurse Home Visitors' Perspectives of Mandatory Reporting of Children's Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence to Child Protection Agencies

Abstract

Training about maltreatment reporting procedures in home visitation programs should focus on the interpretation of child maltreatment laws as well as collaborations with local child protection service agencies to determine if children's exposure to IPV is reportable.

How Public Health Nurses Identify and Intervene in Child Maltreatment Based on the National Clinical Guideline

“…They discussed both everyday issues and problems related to child development with the parents at a child health center, but they failed to discuss relationship issues sufficiently. These results also agree with earlier results [ 9 , 25 – 27 ].…”

“…However, at the identifying and intervening levels, they were not able to apply their willingness in real situations. According to earlier studies [ 9 , 25 , 27 ], PHNs feel that they are in a good position to take the actions needed but they need more training on applying their knowledge in real situations when working with children and families.…”

Nurse home visitors' perceived awareness of mandatory reporting requirements: pregnant women's and children's exposure to intimate partner violence

“…These findings complement previous research that has examined nurse home visitors' attitudes and intended reporting behaviours for both IPV and children's exposure to IPV (Davidov et al . ,c). In those studies, home visitors indicated that they were more likely to consider children's exposure to IPV to be indicative of child maltreatment vs. IPV perpetrated against a woman who was pregnant and were more likely to report the former scenario.…”

“…Detailed information about the methodology and design for the current study can be found elsewhere (Davidov et al . ,c). Data were collected in April/May 2010.…”

“…Our previous research with nurse home visitors in a large home visitation programme focused on attitudes towards reporting IPV between adults and children's exposure to IPV, and home visitors' intended reporting behaviours (Davidov et al . ,c); however, little is known about home visitors' awareness of reporting requirements in these instances.…”