[Intimate partner violence: study with female nurses]

Describe gender-based violence by intimate partners against female nurses in a sample of nurses in Andalucia, Spain.

Descriptive transversal study.

Hospitals and primary health care districts in Andalucia.

Six hundred and twenty-two female nurses that work as nurses in the eight provinces in Andalucia (Spain).

Social-demographic characteristics and presence of abuse (psychological, physical and sexual).

78.5% of the nurses were married or with a regular partner and had the economic income based on both salaries; 71.1% had a child or an elderly dependent person. It was proved that there can be a statistical association between abuse and: marital status; life together; familiar economic support and children and/or dependent elderly person. The average age was 42.5±8.1 years old (22-62 years) and presented statistical age differences comparing both groups: abused (average 44 years) and non-abused (average 41.8 years). Between the married couples studied, 21.7% of them belong to the social class I and 16.9% to the social class II. Between all studied nurses, 33.0% suffered abuse, among which 75.1% were psychologically abused. Of all the abuse cases 60% were less severe and 40% more serious.

It was confirmed the presence of intimate partner violence (IPV) against nurses, which was predominantly psychological abuse, but others classes of abuse were present too.