The lived experience of women subjected to domestic violence and abuse

The number of incidents of domestic violence appears to be continually on the increase. Domestic violence and repeated victimisation and offending can even give rise to fatality. Evaluation of the quality of service delivery and understanding of domestic violence by community members and health care workers show poor results with some people still clinging to myths coming from cultural beliefs. The goal of this article is to explore and describe the lived experience of women subjected to domestic violence and abuse; and to make recommendations for nursing practice, nursing education and nursing research to support women who were subjected to domestic violence and abuse, in facilitating their mental health and optimising their ability to terminate the abusive situation. The framework of the Theory for Health Promotion in Nursing (Rand Afrikaans University, 2000) was used. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research design and in-depth, semi-structured, qualitative research interviews were used. Guba's model of trustworthiness (Poggenpoel, 1998: 348-350) was applied. Guba's model for trustworthiness was used (Poggenpoel, 1998: 348-350) Data analysis was done according to Tesch's method (Poggenpoel, 1998: 343-352). The target population of this study was white women in Middelburg, Mpumalanga Province, that experienced abuse for at least the last year and were still married to or in the process of divorcing the abuser. The researcher used a sample of nine participants of which one was involved in the pilot study.