Preparation of Australian and Spanish nursing students for intimate partner violence

Abstract

Objective: Throughout the world intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant issue and it is important that nurses contribute to policy development, as well as to the nursing care of families. Nurses are uniquely positioned to identify, and support women experiencing IPV. For them to contribute to policy development, they need firstly to develop a better understanding of the issue and to their role in addressing it. This study explored and compared perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of IPV of nursing students in Australia and Spain. Methods: Students from all levels of the nursing programs in both countries participated in focus groups and a follow up survey exploring their understanding of, and attitudes towards IPV. The data from the focus groups was analysed thematically and the quantitative data from the survey statistically. Results: Spanish nursing students had significantly more positive/comprehensive views about the role nurses have in managing IPV, had a stronger view about the nurses' role and that they were more prepared. Although the Australian and Spanish participants were not identical, for example, the Australian sample was predominantly female and over the age of 35, these factors do not explain why the difference. The study was only undertaken in one Australian University and one Spanish university so results cannot be generalised to either country. Conclusions: The findings suggest that there may be much more that could be done to prepare nurses to deal with issues of IPV and to take a lead role in recommending policy changes worldwide.

Attitude and preparedness of nursing students in Saudi Arabia concerning the managing of intimate partner violence

“…Another reason could be the positive impact of media in Saudi Arabia on community attitudes towards domestic violence and women's rights (AlJuhani & AlAteeq, 2020). Studies from Spain (Gorman et al, 2016) and India (Gandhi et al, 2018) have reported that nursing students' attitudes towards IPV and knowledge of IPV were positively influenced by exposure to media.…”

The Status of Intimate Partner Violence-related Education for Nurses in Sri Lanka: A Cross-sectional Survey of the Nursing Curricula

“…As such, it is critical that nurses have a solid understanding of IPV, the associated health problems, presenting problems and symptoms, and the skills to identify and care for women subjected to IPV (Crombie, Hooker & Reisenhofer, 2016;Di Giacomo, Cavallo, Bagnasco, Sartini & Sasso, 2017;Tambağ & Turan, 2015). Although the importance of such education for nurses at pre and post-registration levels has been recommended and guidelines developed by the WHO (2013aWHO ( , 2013bWHO ( , 2017, the nursing curricula in many countries are lacking content related to IPV (AbuTaleb, Dashti, Alasfour, Elshazly & Kamel, 2012;Beccaria et al, 2013;Bradbury-Jones & Broadhurst, 2015;Clark, Renner & Logeais, 2017;Crombie et al, 2016;Doran & Hutchinson, 2016;Gorman et al, 2016;Hutchinson et al, 2019;Lovi, Hurley & Hutchinson, 2018); Sundborg, Saleh-Stattin, Wändell & Törnkvist, 2012). Some of the effective strategies to IPV-related education include: using interactive learning opportunities (Bradbury-Jones & Broadhurst, 2015;Wyatt, McClelland & Spangaro, 2019), providing experiential learning with simulated patients for students to gain confidence in screening for IPV (Blumling, Kameg, Cline, Szpak & Koller, 2018;Gomez-Fernandez, Goberna-Tricas & Paya-Sanchez, 2017;Johnson & Montgomery, 2017;Tufts, Klements & Karlowicz, 2009), improving communication skills using role plays (Zachor, Chang, Zelazny, Jones & Miller, 2018), having adequate time and space (Lovi et al, 2018) to address nurses' attitudes towards and stereotypical assumptions about IPV and the victims and perpetrators (Baird, Saito, Eustace & Creedy, 2018;Di Giacomo et al, 2017;Doran & Hutchinson, 2016;Rigol-Cuadra, Galbany-Estragué & Fuentes-Pumarola, 2015), focus on women-centered, compassionate and supportive care…”