Integrating a domestic violence education program into a medical school curriculum: challenges and strategies

Domestic violence affects millions of women in the United States each year. Physicians are in a unique position to screen for violence in their patients' homes and refer individuals before they are injured or killed. All U.S. medical schools are expected to incorporate partner violence into their curricula.

The MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine has developed and integrated a domestic violence educational intervention program into the existing problem-based medical school curriculum. This educational intervention includes modification of an existing teaching case to include signs and symptoms specific to domestic violence, written learning objectives on domestic violence in the health care setting, relevant resource material, and a 3-hr training program conducted by an interdisciplinary teaching team.

Based on quantitative and qualitative data over a 3-year period, this domestic violence education program has been successfully integrated into an existing problem-based curriculum. Overall, the high student exam scores indicate the effectiveness of the teaching program. In addition, the students' evaluation of the program reflects a high level of student satisfaction with the curriculum presented on domestic violence.

This article describes both the content of a domestic violence teaching program and the process used to integrate such a program into a medical school curriculum. Although medical schools and their teaching programs are uniquely structured, with slight modifications they are able to accommodate domestic violence teaching programs.