Evaluation of an intimate partner violence curriculum in a pediatric hospital

Intimate partner violence harms victims as well as families and communities. Many barriers account for limited intimate partner violence screening by nurses. The purpose of this study was to measure how participation in a curriculum about screening parents for intimate partner violence, at a pediatric hospital, affects a nurse's knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and self-efficacy for intimate partner violence screening.

In this interventional, longitudinal study, data were collected before participation in an intimate partner violence screening curriculum, after participation, and 3 months later. The measurement tool was adapted from Maiuro's (2000) Self-efficacy for Screening for Intimate Partner Violence Questionnaire.

Sixty-eight pediatric nurses completed all aspects of the study. At baseline, 18 (27%) nurses self-reported seeing a parent with an injury, and of those only 7 (39%) followed up with intimate partner violence screening. Factor analysis was performed on the baseline Self-efficacy for Screening for Intimate Partner Violence Questionnaire by using varimax rotation. Five factors were identified: conflict, fear of offending parent, self-confidence, appropriateness, and attitude. Only fear of offending parent was significantly different from times 1 to 3, indicating that nurses were less fearful after the training. Cronbach's alpha value for the total questionnaire at baseline was .85. Nurses reported significant improvement (baseline to 3-month follow-up) in several self-efficacy items.

Participation in a 30-minute curriculum on intimate partner violence screening was associated with improvements in self-efficacy and significantly lower fear of offending parents 3 months after training. Nurses also showed improvement in the perception of resources available for nurses to manage intimate partner violence. Thirty-minute hospital-based curriculums that include victim testimonial video and practice role-playing to simulate parent interactions are recommended.