Increasing nurses' knowledge and skills for enhanced response to intimate partner violence

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Public Health
• Violence Prevention

Background:

• Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant public health issue.
• Public health nurses require specialized training to address IPV effectively.
• A theoretically based in-service program was developed to meet this need.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate an in-service program for public health nurses focused on intimate partner violence.
• To assess the program's impact on nurses' knowledge and clinical skills related to IPV.

Main Methods:

• A two-phase mixed-methods design was employed.
• Phase 1 utilized qualitative methods for program content development.
• Phase 2 used a one-group pretest-posttest design to evaluate program effectiveness.

Main Results:

• Nurses identified a need for enhanced knowledge of IPV prevention resources and improved interviewing skills.
• No significant change in IPV knowledge was observed post-program (p < .107).
• A significant improvement in clinical skills related to IPV was demonstrated (p < .003).

Conclusions:

• The in-service program effectively enhanced the intimate partner violence clinical skills of nurses.
• This program serves as a valuable tool for professional development in public health nursing.
• Targeted training can improve nurses' capacity to address IPV.